Waiting

I had this thought today about waiting. I've blogged before about how waiting seems so hard because sometimes, you don't even know what you're waiting for. Romans 5 says if we hope for what we don't yet have, we wait for it patiently. But what about when we're not sure our hopes are even what we'll end up getting? It's hard to wait patiently when we're not even sure all that patience will yield what we want.

But my thought today was about dessert. Because, well, I think about dessert a lot anyway. I was thinking about how when I was a kid, every night for dessert we got a bowl of ice cream and a cookie. And through my green beans, I had to exercise a lot of patience as I waited for that yummy dessert.

But what if one night, my parents had an even yummier surprise dessert? What if they had ice cream cake (with the chocolate crumblies), or double chocolate Dunkin Donuts, or a trip to an ice cream parlor? I'd be waiting for my bowl of ice cream and cookie and never get it...but only because I'm getting something far better!

When we don't get what we want, it's because God has something better in store. I've come to the realization that there are things I was waiting for that are pretty much not going to happen. But all that means is that I'm going to the ice cream parlor! What I thought was going to be an awesome thing probably won't happen...but whatever God will do in my life will be vastly greater.

And that's why I can wait patiently and hopefully.