Waiting with Intention

The minute you settle for less than you deserve, you get even less than you settled for. -Maureen Dowd

I have this creeping feeling that God doesn't wear a watch or even owns a calendar. Maybe He's a fly by the seat of your pants type and He does hold time in his hand so it must seem superfluous to also wear it on His wrist. My  good friend spent this past Christmas Eve with his mother' boyfriend's family. After feasting and opening presents all of the women in the family get together int he same room, pull out their planners and share dates that need to be saved; birthdays, weddings, vacations-that way they are all on the same page. My Friend thought this activity was very charming as well as practical and there was loose talk about doing this in our own circle of friends. Very quickly it was realized that not all of our friends even own a planner and since we are all without spouses and children and of limited funds, there aren't that many dates to save. I wish God and i could do this, sit around drinking coffee and eating sweet treats and coordinate our planners. I would like to dictate the times and dates however. Better yet, maybe i could just have God copy my desires and when i will want them onto His to-do list. But He won't. He has his own plan, His own mental date book for my life and I unfortunately do not get to choose when things are going to happen.
He is not preoccupied with the fact that i want to buy a house in 2012 or that i want a new job yesterday. His ideas are BIGGER and better than mine and will sculpt my life in a way that graduating from college or losing the dreaded last 5 lbs ever could. I know that what He has for me is light years beyond what I could ever want for myself. God's plans are like a gourmet meal cooked by a private chef and mine are a cafeteria lunch in 5th grade, mysterious and somehow always brown. There is no comparison. I feel like the Verruca Salt character in Charlie and the Chocolate factory. Her loving father promises her amazing gifts, among them a party, a pony and of course a golden goose egg. Her response to his promises is "But, I want it now". Like Verruca, I don't struggle with the idea that gifts will be delivered, its the "when" and the "when" I'm focused on is now.
Even when i don't feel like it, i know i must rest in the truth that God's timing is best. He is just better and smarter, He is the alpha and omega after all. God gives us the small things, what we can handle. He lets us set our own wedding dates, but He chooses the moment when we will meet our future spouse and who it will be. We can plan our birthday parties for whenever we like, but God chooses the day we will enter the world.Ultimately, you have to work with what your given. So quickly do we, do I, forget how Gods perfect timing has manifested in my past, how many things came together at exactly the right time at the work of His hand. Have you ever been overwhelmed and drowning in ever area of your life, walked into your college courtyard from the admissions office, seen someone you sort of know who asks you how you are in which case you immediately spill your guts and they let you cry on their shoulder and pray for you on the spot? Well, that is a very, very specific scenario so probably you haven't, but I have and it was perfect and it was God. Anytime you go to class and its cancelled and you get a break, whenever you see an accident that had you been in the intersection 5 seconds earlier you would be involved in, this is perfect timing. Everyone has there own scenario, their own story of God's perfect timing. It is everywhere all of the time.
    Ladies, take joy in the journey. Stop waiting for things to happen and just live and relax knowing it will happen when God wants it too. Waiting without intention breeds desperation and desperation sometimes leads us to settle, whether its a partner or a job, we settle for instant gratification. We settle for "But, I want it now". Keep you eye on the prize! it seems trite and a little lame but it is so legit. What is your prize? Does it involve God's plan?