For our final post in this series, let’s talk about patience with God.

As survivors, we see lots of changes that we want to make. There are many prayers that we’re waiting to have answered. And we often have a mental schedule for all that.

We have expectations that God will work on our schedules. We make plans based on the timing that we create, and when God doesn’t cooperate with our schedules we feel frustration, impatience, and anger at God.

Yes, I’ve done that too. But we all have to realize that we have no right to tell God when to act. We can trust that our loving Creator will give us all that is best for us. We can also trust that God’s timing is the best timing, though it may be different from our expectations.

We all have to wait for God to answer prayers. Here’s where patience comes in. We can wait with our hearts filled with frustration, anger, and disappointment; or we can gradually learn to wait in peace, confidence, and hope. This is our choice. God is happy to help us gently learn to be patiently, but we have to choose it.

I speak from experience: waiting patiently is much more pleasant than waiting impatiently!