Well, I’ll admit my disappointment. I really had my taste buds set on a deliciously, tender roast for dinner. I’ve made a few decisions for this New Year concerning poor eating habits I possess, and ended up coming to the conclusion to leave certain items out of my diet and see if my physical and mental well-being improved.
Meat was not one of those things I chose to stop eating so the thought of a scrumptious roast titillated me. I had purchased a good-looking one and had it in the fridge on go. I decided last night I would cook it in my new crockpot today. I had looked over a few new recipes to try and couldn’t wait. I could just taste that tender meat melting in my mouth.
My schedule for the day had something else in mind. With errands to run and my miniature, high-maintenance posse tagging along I would find my return home to the crockpot to get things started being further and further delayed. Add to it all my natural ability to have forgotten to purchase half the ingredients I needed, and it was doomed from the start.
I hurriedly stopped at a grocery near home scooping up last minute additions, and kept looking at my watch. It was already three in the afternoon, but roast takes so long to cook!
I can remember when my first daughter was a newborn. It was miserable! I didn’t know what I was doing. She cried every day from 5-8pm. Constant screams with no relief to be given. I couldn’t wait until she got out of her colicky phase, and I wished the time to speed up. I hadn’t experienced such a lengthy three months since my time in bootcamp!
I can remember wanting her to hurry up and crawl, then hurry up and walk. I couldn’t wait until she could speak and say “I love you.”
When my second child came I was just the opposite. I knew the waiting for a child to grow up is never as long as you think. One look at what should have been my toddler daughter, and being confronted instead with the face of a little girl had taught me that.
I’ve never really been good at waiting. With New Year’s resolutions of healthier eating and smarter spending I find myself desiring weight loss, improved well-being, and financial freedom, none of which will come overnight, but only with perseverance and a long wait.
With goals for my career, desires for my family’s life, and dreams for the future, it seems like it all can never be obtained when it’s wanted. Like right now! There’s always that rogue thought of simply winning the lottery or having some sort of miraculous intervention to deliver the perfect package of your future on your doorstep by next week.
With my culinary dreams of succulent roast I had a decision to make. I knew I could cook it in a mere four hours and have it for tonight’s supper. Or I could wait until another day, wait until I had more time, sufficient time for it to slow cook properly.
Something about the slow cooking process, it makes the meat so very tender. Something about the low heat for an extended period releases the flavors from the meat in a perfect way, romantically mingling each savory morsel.
I have to remind myself that though God may have me over some low heat, it isn’t without purpose. Though I have to wait for an extended period before things come to completion, it’s for a reason.
I’m reminded that even the most difficult stages of a young child’s development end up being the most rewarding. The hard stuff ends up being the memories you are brought back to, the ones that fill your heart to capacity, where it threatens to pour over with joy at the thought.
The release of flavor in your life as you wait makes it worth the time.
The time spent over the heat refines you to be a most pleasant offering.
Some days it’s making the decision to wait it out rather than rush for a lesser result. It’s a decision to wait. To be still. To allow time to make you into what is intended.
Anything good is worth the wait.