God Principle: Wait

So I experienced what I call a God Principle.

Sometimes it happens that everyday life as a parent reminds me of what our Heavenly Father goes through with us.

The other day, I was wiping Kate's hands with a wet, soapy rag at the dinner table right before we ate instead of making her go to the bathroom to wash up because she was so tired.

In the process of washing her up, the table got all soap-sudsy. As I walked to the sink to get a dry towel, I said, "Oh, I'll get a towel to clean that up." But she made a fuss and didn't stop to hear me tell her that I was taking care of it. She swished it around all over her side of the table and moved her plate back and forth over the mess until the soap suds were all over. By the time I got to the table with the towel she had made a doozy of a mess with the bubbles.

A "zap" of understanding came to me. Sometimes we are like Kate. We don't receive God's comforting words that He is on His way to help. We don't ask for His help. We just take it upon ourselves to "fix" the problem with our limited knowledge of how things work. We don't know God's ways. We don't know He is coming and that He will help us. And that when He helps us, it will be so much better than anything we could think of or hope for.

So the next time you find yourself in a similar situation with spiritual "soap suds all over your kitchen table," just stop and ask for help. If the help is slower to come than you'd like (which it often is), hold to it, listen for comfort, wait for His hand to clear the mess. He's on His way. If the mess is never cleaned up, it was probably not that big of a deal anyway so focus on the yummy dinner He prepared for you and the clean hands He gave you.