Raising a child is a very intricate,
challenging and rewarding process. And as am slowly discovering, a journey
full of beautiful lessons as well. For a woman, the journey begins right after
conception all the way to…well, a life time. About the latest addition to our
family, he’s just about to walk. And it’s so exciting to see him beam with pride
when he makes his fifteen seconds stand. He’s so proud of himself more than we
are proud of him. Another amazing addition to his expeditions is food. He’s
been on it for three months now and I can tell he’s enjoying one of the unrivaled pleasures that life allows to human beings; the taste of food. I
don’t think a goat goes out there and is wowed by the taste of shrubs like I
get floored with the taste of my home made pineapple fried rice. And for my son, he just
loves picking out slices of carrots from my meal plate. I don’t know if it’s
the bright orange color of the carrots that draws him, or their tender slippery
taste in the mouth, all I know is that he loves the carrots. No matter how satisfied
he is, when it’s my meal time, he comes running to scout for those orange
misfits littered all over my food.
As you can imagine, most times the food is
hot, well, too hot for him. But all he wants is his carrots. So it turns into a
scuffle where I try to explain to him that I need to cool it to the temperature
his inexperienced mouth can handle, and he’s not allowing any of it (he’s 10
months by the way). To drive the lesson home, I allow him to taste the hot
carrot and he immediately gets it. Then he grudgingly allows to wait for me to
pick them out and feed him one at a time, by blow cooling each pick. And so
harmony is restored as things get to settle, I can now take my meal in peace as
he also munches on his carrot one blowing at a time.
Aren’t we adults just about the same with
what we need from our “parent” God? We pester him with our wants (carrots). We
just want our carrots, and we want them now. We want that career move now, we want that spouse now, we want the financial break through now, we want that
corner office now, we want the success now. We don’t care if it’s hot, we are
convinced we are ready. And the fact that we want it is all that matters.
Perhaps the delay is because he’s been
explaining that the carrot is still hot; You won’t be able to handle the
pressures that come with that new job you want as yet, you are not ready for
marriage and the obligations that come with it, if the success you envision was
to come now, it would quickly get into your head, thus stealthily slipping in
pride, arrogance, and bad leadership altogether. Perhaps God is been trying to
say, “The carrot is still hot.” If you were listening more attentively to His
voice, he might be saying be patient and watch me cool it down for you.
Do not focus too much on that corner office
or that position, focus more on investing in yourself, desire to know more,
empower yourself, go for that post graduate, enroll for that leadership course,
and gather the guts to finally approach that amazing soul you’ve been eyeing as
a mentor. Then when you least expect it, that move will come when you are
tending to the sheep; if you are familiar with the anointing of the shepherd
boy David as the next king of Israel (1 Samuel 16:1 -13. Too much worried about age, or meeting
the right person? I’d rather you focus more on being the right person. If you
keep doing the right thing day in day out, God will hold his end of the
bargain.
Am not saying
these are the most important accomplishments in life, all am saying is, if you
focus on doing the right things, by Gods providence and sovereignty he will order your footsteps, preparing good works in
advance, and making all things work together for good. Of course, somethings
won’t make sense until we cross to eternity, but in the meantime, be the best
you can be by God’s grace that He richly provides for us. Don’t push God to the
point of him allowing you to have your way, the “carrot” will burn more than
your mouth.
Shalom
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