All Good Things Come to Them That Wait
Have you ever noticed what type of "self-help" magazine articles are actually leaving the shelves in supermarkets? It is those that give quick solutions to large problems. A magazine with a feature article "How to Lose 30 Pounds in 30 Days" will sell much more quickly than one that features a 6-month diet and exercise program.
Do a search on the internet, and you'll find hundreds of sites telling you how to make money fast, how to speak Chinese in 6 easy lessons, how to play the piano in one week and how to remodel your kitchen in one weekend. What these articles won't tell you is that you will only be able to play one song on the piano (and it won't sound like a Beethoven Sonata), all you will really be able to accomplish in your kitchen on a weekend is maybe a paint job (We all know it takes weeks to remodel a kitchen), you will not be fluent in Chinese after 6 lessons (you'll be doing well to learn the 30 phrases they've taught you), and before you can make any money, you have to spend $200 on a beginner's kit, work 80 hours a week for 4 weeks, and chances are you won't make more than a few dollars.
Add fast food, easy credit, one-hour film development and instant internet information, and you have a society on a fast track to destruction. While it's great to have "quick and easy" things available to us, we are destroying ourselves and our children by offering them instant everything. This could not have hit me harder than it did the other day when we were driving home from somewhere. It was dinner time, and I was planning on stir frying some veggies and meat as soon as we got home. My youngest said to me, "Mom, I'm hungry. Can we stop at McDonald's?" "No," I said, "I have dinner planned." Her answer? "But I'm hungry NOW!" We were less than 10 minutes from home, and dinner would have been on the table in less than 30 minutes.
We didn't stop at McDonalds, and my daughter did not starve, but it did make me sit up and think. Have I been teaching my children that everything comes easy? Perhaps not, but I realized that I haven't been teaching them the values of waiting either. "All good things come to them that wait", I heard my father say many times while I was growing up.
I used to think that the "good things" meant that when you've waited, you finally get the prize you've been longing to have. But life has taught me that it's not so much the prize at the end, but the lessons learned in the waiting that are the "good things". So much is gained in the waiting process. Patience the great virtue is the obvious lesson learned. We often have to wait because things need to be done before we can have what we want. This teaches us to prioritize our lives.
Sometimes we wait because we don't have the funds to do what we want. This teaches us to budget our money and work hard, rather than buying it now and paying for it later. When we wait, we learn to appreciate the thing for which we have been waiting. The longing for it makes it that much sweeter. My favorite chair in our living room, though it is not the most comfortable, is the rocking chair that I saved my money to buy. I stashed quarters, nickels and dimes for months until I had earned enough to buy that chair. When I sit in it, I remember how I longed to have a nice rocker chair to rock my first baby.
We fail our children and society when we do not teach them the values of waiting. If we give them everything they want, they will not appreciate what they have. Instead of working hard, they will expect that things be handed to them. We will produce lazy, careless adults who think that the world owes them a living. My challenge today? Don't rush in, wait for it.
Do a search on the internet, and you'll find hundreds of sites telling you how to make money fast, how to speak Chinese in 6 easy lessons, how to play the piano in one week and how to remodel your kitchen in one weekend. What these articles won't tell you is that you will only be able to play one song on the piano (and it won't sound like a Beethoven Sonata), all you will really be able to accomplish in your kitchen on a weekend is maybe a paint job (We all know it takes weeks to remodel a kitchen), you will not be fluent in Chinese after 6 lessons (you'll be doing well to learn the 30 phrases they've taught you), and before you can make any money, you have to spend $200 on a beginner's kit, work 80 hours a week for 4 weeks, and chances are you won't make more than a few dollars.
Add fast food, easy credit, one-hour film development and instant internet information, and you have a society on a fast track to destruction. While it's great to have "quick and easy" things available to us, we are destroying ourselves and our children by offering them instant everything. This could not have hit me harder than it did the other day when we were driving home from somewhere. It was dinner time, and I was planning on stir frying some veggies and meat as soon as we got home. My youngest said to me, "Mom, I'm hungry. Can we stop at McDonald's?" "No," I said, "I have dinner planned." Her answer? "But I'm hungry NOW!" We were less than 10 minutes from home, and dinner would have been on the table in less than 30 minutes.
We didn't stop at McDonalds, and my daughter did not starve, but it did make me sit up and think. Have I been teaching my children that everything comes easy? Perhaps not, but I realized that I haven't been teaching them the values of waiting either. "All good things come to them that wait", I heard my father say many times while I was growing up.
I used to think that the "good things" meant that when you've waited, you finally get the prize you've been longing to have. But life has taught me that it's not so much the prize at the end, but the lessons learned in the waiting that are the "good things". So much is gained in the waiting process. Patience the great virtue is the obvious lesson learned. We often have to wait because things need to be done before we can have what we want. This teaches us to prioritize our lives.
Sometimes we wait because we don't have the funds to do what we want. This teaches us to budget our money and work hard, rather than buying it now and paying for it later. When we wait, we learn to appreciate the thing for which we have been waiting. The longing for it makes it that much sweeter. My favorite chair in our living room, though it is not the most comfortable, is the rocking chair that I saved my money to buy. I stashed quarters, nickels and dimes for months until I had earned enough to buy that chair. When I sit in it, I remember how I longed to have a nice rocker chair to rock my first baby.
We fail our children and society when we do not teach them the values of waiting. If we give them everything they want, they will not appreciate what they have. Instead of working hard, they will expect that things be handed to them. We will produce lazy, careless adults who think that the world owes them a living. My challenge today? Don't rush in, wait for it.
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