Often, when I think back on my childhood, it feels like a great deal of time was spent waiting. Waiting for the school bell to announce the end of a long, hot day in the classroom. Waiting hungrily for Mom to call us to the table. Waiting for boring adults to wake from their Sunday afternoon nap so we could go for an ice cream. 😊

Even in senior school there were long waits outside the school gates, waiting impatiently for a busy father to appear. No surprise then that I could hardly wait to have my own car and somehow, even on his very limited budget, my dad managed to buy a little old side-valve Morris Minor which I proudly drove to school in my final matric months. It was slow and powerless, could scarcely pull away on the steep inclines around our home, but it was a magic carpet into the independence I longed for. We had agreed that the moment I started work I would pay him back, which I did faithfully each month. It was not too long before I traded it for a VW Beetle that was the envy of my friends because it had a sunroof (my first convertible) that my girlfriends would love to hang out of!  Now I didn’t have to wait for anyone, unless I chose to.

However, I soon found out being an independent adult did not do away with waiting. Now it was waiting for the phone to ring. Waiting for a special letter from my long-distance sweetheart. Waiting to walkdown the aisle into our future and calling.

To my surprise, I have found that waiting birthed patience, making me wiser in my old age. Waiting has also taught me that one of the greatest gifts we can give ourselves is to trade the tyranny of expectations(waiting) for the liberation of giving and loving.  I love the scripture: Owe nothing to anyone—except for your obligation to love one another. If you love your neighbor, you will fulfill the requirements of God’s law. (Romans 15:8NLT)

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