good opportunities vs right timing. Just a few thoughts.

The other day I was getting ready for an event, all four of my kids were occupied and I decided to take a “me” moment… so I snuck up to my room and got all my nail polish out and started to paint my nails. I only had one nail done when my 1 1/2 year old comes bolting into the room and makes a beeline for my open bottle of polish… I suddenly turn into supermom and rescue both my nails, and the nail polish without ruining my nails, all while picking up my son with the other hand. In the next few minutes, all of my kids decided to venture upstairs to “hang out”. It seems as if the smell of nail polish is an invitation to both my boys and my girls to attack mom. lol.

Without fail, God always speaks to me in the middle of these crazy moments and gives me a parallel to my spiritual life. I had getting my nails done for this event as a TOP priority… because I was seizing the moment.   The reality hit me  that the kids were all hungry and needed to be feed, and needed help getting dressed still… besides the fact that I still needed to do my hair and get dressed.  Somehow getting my nails done right now seemed the right thing at the time. As I thought it all through, I knew that now was NOT the time to do my nails… they would never dry in time for me to get everything done. But i made a decision right then to keep trying. I wanted my nails done so bad, that now, despite the lack of “me” time, and wisdom…

I tried to keep going. I finished one hand and started in on the next all the while, “encouraging my kids loudly” that they needed to let me get this done… please. My baby decided to jiggle the box that all the nail polishes live in… and next came a loud crash. Only one polish had broken but it had gotten all over the other ones…. Immediately, my plans changed. I grabbed the baby and started to clean up the mess, all while guarding my freshly painted nails. It was a ridiculous adventure. Now the baby was crying out of hunger so I took him downstairs, carefully got the food out and got him in his highchair and headed back upstairs to finish my nails. As I got upstairs, of course, my nails had not all survived and I had the nail polish residue all over my hands.  I was so determined that  I actually tried to salvage my nails and thought well maybe one hand kinda done is better than none.

I started to get mad  when God stopped me. I saw how ridiculous this whole thing had been, that it was such bad timing! It started out great, a real “me” moment, but I did not use wisdom and look to make sure I had the actual time to do it,  I had been so foolish to hang on to this idea that getting my nails done right now was so important. So many obvious things were in the way and I really should have planned better, like doing the daily things (my hair, getting family dressed and fed) before I decided to add in the nails. Hello? Taking the nail polish all off, I felt such a release of pressure.

God spoke to me that this whole situation  is exactly what we do in our Christian walk sometimes. We have an idea/dream that we know is God given. We get so excited about it that we see a way to do it and we jump in headfirst. But so often we forget to let God have His perfect timing. We forget to ask God, and our leaders if they see it as wise timing. There is a huge difference between a good opportunity and right timing.

We take the thing INTO our hands, and doing so completely take it OUT of God’s hands.

We confuse things and blame the problems that are arising on “a spiritual attack”, when in reality it is a result of our poor choices. We know it is a God given dream so because we saw an open door we ran ahead of God and tried to make it work. Then we have to adjust everything in life around that thing… we guard and keep it and forget to do the things the most basic things that grow our relationship with God. Soon we are mad at God and others around us for “getting in the way”. But so many times, the problem is not others, but our own timing. God promises to opens doors before us… if we will just wait, it may turn out different than we imagined, but God’s perfect timing always makes it better.

So I encourage you today, if you find yourself in this same place, stop and ask God if you are operating in your own strength and out of His timing. Ask God if you jumped on a good opportunity and forgot to find out if it was God’s perfect timing. I guarantee you that letting God have his way will be worth it. HE is the creator and author of your prophetic dreams so HE is the best fullfiler of those dreams.

“Trust in the Lord with all your heart, lean not on your own understanding, in all your ways acknowledge Him, and He will direct your paths”