A Lesson from Babylon

My women’s Bible study started this week and we are studying the Book of Daniel for the next 12 weeks. I am very unfamiliar with this book – in fact I told my sister that all I pretty much remember from Sunday School is ‘Daniel and the Lion’ – she responded by saying Noah (my three year old nephew) knew about the same. Dang he’s so smart!

ANYWAYS, so the first lesson is about recognizing the “Babylon” culture we live in. From what I’ve read this week, Babylon was an empire very much like the Western Culture we live in. They focused on Perfection, Wealth, Fame and "Self". They were living the motto of:

‘I am, and there is none besides me’
(Isaiah 47:10)

Sound familiar? We are given the choices to custom order everything from homes to hamburgers! And everything is better "sooner rather than later". In a nutshell: It’s all about ME in this culture. I’m not notating this to be cliché - I know we’ve all already seen tons of little commentaries or articles concerning this observation - but I’m letting you know how it has applied to our life lately.

You see, Casey and I are to the point in our marriage and life where we are ready to start our family. (holy guacomole that is crazy just to say!) When we got married, we initially said that we would wait two years to start this process and sure enough- when we had our second anniversary this summer we both agreed that this was the right time. We had lots of travel behind us, had bought ourselves a home, have appropriate "baby seat" cars... all that stuff. And I mean really, with genes as great as ours - who wouldn't want to create a baby? :)

And here we are.

And I'm incredibly excited (and nervous - very very nervous). But I’m also incredibly floored by the lessons God is teaching us through this process already. God is helping me to take the focus off of ME and what I want and bringing the focus back to HIM and HIS timing. I may never know the reason behind God’s timing, and the fact is that it doesn’t matter. (Although I would appreciate it if He would take into consideration that I do not want to be 9 months pregnant during the month of August!)
All joking aside, I hear Him speaking very clearly in my heart and He is saying “BELIEVE ME” – so I will. And I do. I am committed to patience. Those who know me realize that I am not a very patient person by nature. (in fact sometimes I'm somewhat of a nut job)

I remember waiting for letters to see if I was accepted into certain colleges. Or the week of our wedding, I thought that Saturday was NEVER going to get here. And when I had to get a new car? Ha. Forget about it. I wanted one the first day I went looking. It's hard to wait (for me)!

But Patience is a virtue, one that I really need to work on.

Especially now.

I realize that patience is also a spin-off of the “ME” attitude. When you really think about it – Impatience is focusing on what I want right now. It’s not cute and it’s not who I want to be. Thank you God for taking this opportunity for a nice little life lesson. And I can’t forget to send a shout out to my husband who is incredibly forgiving of me in this area.

God has been with us through everything. Our meeting, Our marriage, Death and Life of family members. Everything. And I know that it will happen when He has planned.

P.S. I found this cute little picture on another blog I follow, how sweet is this message? Very sweet I tell you!