Waiting on the Lord

It's funny how quick we sometimes are to give up on the Lord.

We frequently hear the phrase, "Faith in the Lord includes faith in His timing," but do we really believe it?

It's hard, because we know that sometimes the Lord answers our prayers by not answering them (at least in the way we were wanted).  We pray for the Lord to heal a suffering family member quickly, but instead they have a drawn-out illness. In the end though, it was what the Lord intended because it helped them learn patience and long-suffering and empathy. This is just an example, but it explains why it is hard for me sometimes to pray in faith, actually believing the Lord will answer my prayer.  I pray for something to happen, but in the back of my mind, I'm thinking, Well, it probably won't happen because the Lord has other plans. Sometimes, though, we just need to wait.

An example of this happened in our house. Yesterday, Dustin lost the key to the work car he takes when he's doing his internship. We looked everywhere. He was sure he had put it on our counter, but I didn't remember seeing it. It wasn't in any pockets, hadn't fallen into the sink or the diaper bag, wasn't hiding in the couch cushions or the kids' toybox. Dustin decided it must have fallen out of his pocket as he was running to class earlier that morning. He was sure it was lost forever in the icy, slushy sidewalks of USU. It was really stressing him out big-time. Would he get in trouble for losing it? Would he have to buy a new one? (This was no dinky little key to replace, either. It was the key to a new Honda that has the lock/unlock buttons right on the key itself. Probably over $100 to replace.)

All day long Dustin and I looked for the key, and prayed to Heavenly Father to help us find it. By bedtime, however, I had decided that we weren't going to find it. We both believed we had looked everywhere it could possibly be. Before bed, I prayed one more time that we would find the key. I prayed, but there was no faith. I had already decided that we weren't going to find the key, that Heavenly Father must have a different plan in mind. Isn't that crazy? In less than 24 hours, I had already give up all hope that the Lord would answer my prayer. I had decided that it must not have been important enough to Him. I was faithless.

The next morning, we had an errand to run. Dustin ran outside to start the car while I got the girls in their coats. Suddenly, the door burst open, and Dustin literally jumped into the house and dropped to one knee, holding the missing key aloft in his hand. "I FOUND IT!"

 Turns out, the key must have fallen out of Dustin's pocket in the car on the way to school. It had slipped into the space between the car door and the seat, and then slid under the driver's seat. Dustin had looked in the car before, but not under the seats, because how could it have possibly gotten there?  He felt like he should look again, though, so he did a quick sweep under the two front seats and didn't find anything. Just as he was getting out of the car and shutting the door, he decided to glance back into the car one more time, and that's when he spotted the key, half hidden under the seat.

We were both super excited that the key was found. As we were driving to our errand, I realized how foolish it had been to give up on the Lord so quickly. I'm sure he knew all along where the key was, and that we would find it when we got into the car in the morning. How could I have given up so quickly? I had prayed a few times and then decided it was a lost cause. It felt like the Lord was giving me a little slap on the wrist. A not-so-gentle reminder to have faith in the Lord's timing. How foolish I was.

It's a good thing the Lord doesn't give up on us as quickly as we give up on him.

It may not seem like much, finding a lost key. Some people might say it was just coincidence. I know better. I know it was the Lord reminding me that sometimes, you just have to wait.