As I stated earlier, time is irrelevant to God and children. When God makes a promise, He will make sure it is fulfilled. It just does not always happen within the time frame we think it should. When my girls were young and would ask me for or to do something, if I said yes, they’d assume that it would happen immediately and to their satisfaction. Well, as all fathers know, that is not how things happen. Usually when they asked, I was either doing something, on the phone, talking to another person, or working on the computer. They demanded my immediate attention. If I did not give it to them instantaneously, they would repeat their request until I either responded (“NO,” “Yes,” “Maybe,” “We’ll see”) or I walked away. That alone would not help because they would simply follow me, repeating their demands until they got a response. They had no patience. My wife and I as their parents saw it as our responsibility to teach them patience by either putting them off or simply giving them an answer of yes or no! Unfortunately, that did not seem to help either unless it was the answer they wanted. Then, they would leave us in peace. That is when we thought that we had taught them patience: when they left us alone in peace and quiet. As every parent knows, that was not how to teach them patience. We didn’t have the patience to bear their constant badgering, so we simply gave them what they wanted.

​

In case you didn’t know, that is not how God teaches us patience. Remember, God has all the time. He lives outside of time and space. And time as we know it was created by Him.

​

So just how do we learn patience or how to wait? The reason I started out with the topic of understanding time is that it will help you grasp the concept of relativity and how we as humans see everything relative to us and our own personal universe. That applies to all humans: Americans, Russians, Japanese, Europeans, etc. You get the picture. We want what we want, when we want it, and typically how we want it. In a nutshell, we are all selfish.

​

“That’s not very nice,” you might say. Yes, you are correct that it’s not nice, but it is true. We were all born with a selfish nature. Thanks, Adam and Eve. It could have been you or me who caused the undoing of a perfect world, so don’t look too harshly on Adam and Eve. Here is my point: we are all selfish by nature, egocentric, egotistic, egotistical, egomaniacal, self-centered, self-regarding, self-absorbed, self-obsessed, self-seeking, self-serving, wrapped up in oneself, inward-looking, introverted, self-loving; inconsiderate, thoughtless, unthinking, uncaring, heedless, unmindful, regardless, insensitive, tactless, uncharitable, unkind; miserly, grasping, greedy, mercenary, money-grubbing, acquisitive, opportunistic, out for what one can get!

​

You might think, “DANG! Those are some harsh words to say about people.” Yes, I agree with you that those are harsh words. Those are a few of the phrases and synonyms of the word selfish. Once we understand and truly realize how hopeless we are without God, we begin to see ourselves for who we really are, thus enabling us to see the world through God’s eyes and not our own. Our eyes see everything as relative, how it affects us and not the world in its entirety. Our impatience comes from that perspective. Children are impatient and can’t seem to wait for anything. They are not getting what they want, when they want it, and naturally assume that everything and everyone in the universe is there for them and only them. It is simply part of our fallen human nature. That is why it is so important for us as parents to teach our children to wait! But, we must learn it first. You can’t teach what you do not know.

​

“So, just how do you wait patiently?” You ask.