Waiting

By Michelle (Graceful, Faith in the Everyday)

"Last year I used to think that maybe I didn't believe in God, but now I know I do." He announces it at the dinner table, and I pause, a spoonful of lentil curry soup poised halfway to my mouth.

"You thought you didn't believe in God last year?" I ask, trying to keep my voice light and bouncy.

"Yeah, but I'm good now. I feel better again," my ten-year-old son Noah says.

"So what made you change your mind?" I ask, soup spoon still steady in mid-air. "How did you come back to believing in God again?" I need to know how he did this. I want to be reassured it won't happen again. I need to know that my son won't spend his childhood mired in fear and unbelief, like I did.

"I don't know. I guess I just sort of waited," he answers. "And then, after a while, I felt like I believed again."

There is much wisdom in that little-boy answer.

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Listening For God

By Pat

Have you ever set out to perform a task, whether great or small, only to have it result in failure? I have, more times than I care to remember, and usually it was because I didn't seek God's guidance, or if I did, I didn't wait long enough to hear God's instructions. Sometimes I plowed ahead, knowing that even if I was not successful, God could fix what I had messed up or left incomplete.

Sometimes in setting about the task of serving God, I leave Him out of the equation too much. This is also true of important decisions that I have had to make. So many times I have trusted in my own limited knowledge, or acted on emotion too quickly, and have made decisions I have regretted. I lack the patience and discipline that I need, and I miss out on the blessing of knowing I have done exactly what God would have me do. I know that He knows best, and yet I plow ahead...and sometimes regret it.

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