I fussed at one of the kids the other morning for cleaning his room. It sounds crazy; I know. The thing was that I told them to get completely ready to go so that we could leave the house on time. Although I appreciated the initiative to clean his room, when it came time to leave, he wasn’t ready to walk out the door. I dislike being late, and I am annoyed by waiting. He was hurt that I wasn’t happy about his decision to clean his room, so I apologized for snapping at him and tried to explain my rationale.

Everyone got loaded into the car and I was about to shift into Reverse, then I suddenly remembered something that I left inside the house. *facepalm – Now, I was the one making us late. Nothing like a heaping dose of humility to get your morning off on the right foot!

Did you know the Psalms contain some variation of the word “wait” more than two dozen times? The book of Job uses the word about a dozen times. (Speaking of whom, if you think you are having a bad day, then read Job’s story from last week and be thankful.) I think God may be trying to tell us something about our desire to hurry up, go, go, go. When we wait for something, we relinquish a bit of control over whatever that situation may be. (On the flip side, perhaps, when we grumble about waiting, it’s an indication that we aren’t willing to give up control.) Giving up control means relying on something or someone else and trusting that they’ll come through, in due time.

That can be easier said than done when dealing with other people, because we’re all human and make plenty of facepalm mistakes every day. The good news, though, is that we never have to worry about the time we spend waiting on God. Instead of being antsy, Psalm 27:14 (NASB) reminds us to “be strong and let your heart take courage” while we wait on the Lord. Psalm 33:20 (NASB) says that God is “our help and our shield” as our souls wait for him.

Is there something that you’ve been waiting on and feeling frustrated about? Let’s read through some of the Psalms about waiting this week, and turn them into prayers to help us focus on the Lord while we wait.