Tuesday, November 13, 2007

Letter to Daughter #1

In response to Jerusalem's beautiful essay
on the pains and pleasures of life in the churches.
(see her blog)

Sweet daughter,
you (and all these friends)
are experiencing in life what you have known in your head
(because your daddy preached about it more than once),
a truth that our souls (intellect, emotion, and will) often resist,
but our hearts (spirit) must come to accept,
and, maybe, even eventually embrace --
there is NO substitute for TIME.

When you were four,
you wanted to be a teenager.
Took time.
When you were a teenager,
you wanted to be a woman.
Took time.
When God created a life in you,
many days you wanted that baby to be born NOW!
... but it took time.
There is NO substitute for TIME.

And so it is with the walk of faith ...
with church life ...
with the Christian life
(the two are not the same!)
... and everything worthwhile.
Those beautiful things you create ...
those wonderful meals or songs Nathan produces ...
those precious boys you are raising.
Takes time.

God sometimes acts suddenly ...

but never hastily.

HE has decreed:

there is NO substitute for TIME.

2 comments:

Unknown said...

Everything you said is so true. And you are right, my head knows it is true, but some days it is hard to convince my heart of that. Thanks for your sweet words and encouragement - they mean so much to me, more than you could ever know!!!!

I love you!!!

Judea said...

Your best post ever.