My husband and son set some time apart to work on a project. It was father-son time. I went out to run some errands and came back, they were still working hard. I went into a meeting and when I was done, they were still working hard. They didn’t intend to be more than an hour or a little over. Three hours plus and the project still had both of them. I heard frustration. I saw tiredness. There was agreement and disagreement. There were problems and problem solving. I also heard laughter. I saw teamwork and commitment. There was talking and there was listening. There was leading and there was following. They did not stop until what they had started was completed. Every time I looked out at them, my heart was glad. Intimacy was being developed and memories being created. And the end end result left both of them happy and glad they had spent time together. They didn’t care how long they were together. They didn’t care that it was longer than they had planned.

It is in these times that God is growing our faith, growing our cooperation, growing our patience, growing our Intimacy with Him, growing our endurance, growing us.

We experience frustration and disagreement, we work through our problems with God, even going back and forth with the problem solving suggestions God presents to us. We show our tiredness and God gives his encouragement. We spend time talking and listening and the time passes. We laugh with God. We hear his plans and we join God in what he is doing. Teamwork begins to unfold. We learn to let God lead and how much better it is to follow Him. And we also realize that we can’t stop now, no matter how long it is taking. We don’t want to miss anything God has for us. We know it is going to be good. We are so close to the end. We don’t want to miss out on completion. And just like it happened for my son and husband, their unplanned and unrushed time together produced great results, so it is when we embrace our unplanned and unrushed time with God. It is in these times that God is growing our faith, growing our cooperation, growing our patience, growing our Intimacy with Him, growing our endurance, growing us. My husband and son stuck with each other, with the task, with the time and ended well with more than they had thought or planned. God wants the same for us. As James 1: 4 encourages us, “Let perseverance finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything.”

God has so much for us. I don’t want to miss any of it. How about you?