The Good Stuff is Coming!

While not every day is exactly the same, the days that we are at home tend to follow a pretty typical routine, which, if you know me well, you know I LOVE a routine! (i.e. I'm that typical Baptist girl who doesn't always welcome change very warmly!) Gabriel is my schedule-baby. He thrives being on a schedule for the most part. So, after he gets up in the morning, he has his bottle, then we play for awhile in the floor with his toys. A little before 9AM or a little after, he starts to get fussy which means he wants his breakfast (usually cereal mixed with some formula and a fruit of some sort.) Once breakfast is over (which he makes VERY obvious by pursing his lips together and shoving the spoon away!) I change his diaper, snuggle him, sometimes we read a book, and then I turn his gloworm seashorse on after I put him in his crib. He usually puts up a tiny fight, but then he quickly falls asleep and wakes up cooing and laughing and smiling:) This is our morning norm, and it's been that way for quite awhile. So, you'd think with a baby boy who thrives on such a typical schedule that he would come to expect the next step in the process...but that's not exactly the case...

You see, when he wakes up in the morning, he usually plays happily in his crib for a little while, but then he starts crying to let me know, "Hey mom! I'm HUNGRY!" So I pick him up and change his diaper...all the while he cries and is very upset. But the moment I stick that bottle in his mouth, he's perfectly fine and content.

Then there's breakfast time. He starts fussing to let me know he's hungry. We follow the same routine--I pick him up, put him in his high chair, put a bib on him, and get his breakfast ready...and all the while he cries and is very upset. Yet, he knows that breakfast is on its way...the thing is, he doesn't want to wait for it, because he wants it RIGHT THAT SECOND!

I often find myself telling him while I'm trying to hurriedly get a bottle made or his food ready, "Honey...momma has never let you go hungry--why would you think I am going to this time?" Yet he still cries, even though a bottle always ends up in his mouth or a spoon full of food is always brought his way. I couldn't help but laugh as I glanced over towards my Bible on the dining room table as this was all happening this morning. I've been reading in Exodus where the Israelites have been brought out of Egypt and are in the desert. Every time they would face an obstacle, God would bring them through, and yet every time they STILL doubted and threw a fit in one way or another. As I look at my own life, I can unfortunately seem a similar theme. As we face struggles of various degrees, aren't we a lot like a little baby and like the Israelites?  God ALWAYS has shown Himself to be faithful, but time and again we doubt His faithfulness and we may even throw a fit during our time of wait. We grow impatient for things to happen exactly when we want them to, and we lose sight of His perfect timing and deliverance.

As I find myself dealing with different struggles in my own life, I find it so easy to want to whine my way through it and I grow weary and hopeless. But, then I am reminded of God's faithfulness. And just like I tell my sweet Gabriel, "Momma's getting it for you, I promise--but there's a process involved first, so if you can wait just a second, the good stuff is coming!" God is telling me the exact same thing:  "Don't worry, PB, I've got this!  I have never failed you before, and I never will!  I promise, the good stuff is coming! " As He was reminding me of these truths this morning, I found myself pouring over several different passages in the Old Testament.  Here are some excerpts from one of those passages that I want to share with y'all today...

From Lamentations 8:
"Because of the LORD's great love we are not consumed, for his compassions never fail. They are new every morning: great is Your faithfulness. I say to myself, "The LORD is my portion; therefore I will wait for Him."
The LORD is good to those whose hope is in Him, to the one who seeks Him; it is good to wait quietly for the salvation of the LORD...
Though He brings grief, He will show compassion, so great is His unfailing love...
Those who were my enemies without cause hunted me like a bird. They tried to end my life in a pit and threw stones at me; the waters closed over my head, and I thought I was about to be cut off.
I called on Your name, O LORD, from the depths of the pit. You heard my plea: "Do not close Your ears to my cry for relief." You came near when I called You, and You said, "Do not fear."

Just as we want good things for our children, so does our Heavenly Father want good things for His children.  His faithfulness to me does not depend on my faithfulness to Him, but Oh, what a blessing when we learn to wait patiently for Him through each and every storm.  I pray that my God will find me waiting hopefully and expectantly, with PRAISE on my lips as a dear friend reminded me this week, and with confidence that He is working and has the "good stuff" coming!