Helping Your Child Wait on God's Timing: Patience and Faith
My own wait
It’s 2022 as I write. I have been waiting for 42 years for the Lord to give me a particular desire of my heart!….I go through periods of frustration, pain, discouragement and giving up on what I thought was His promise- so maybe it wasn’t a promise after all? I have been going around in circles-forever discerning!
If I struggle with this how can a child wait on God?
A Child’s Wait
We all know that a child can barely get through a whole minute of waiting….time for them seems to go so, so, S – L- O – W – L – Y
It’s rare that we get a prophecy- a promise from God that He will bring something to pass in the future- right!
If we did – you would think that it should make the whole ‘waiting thing’ easier…but if you look at some of the characters in the bible…like Abraham and Sarah you can see that it was pretty hard for them too.
Perhaps they want to be a ballerina or an artist or a competitive swimmer or runner?
Well, first we could support them by saying that that seems like a good idea and shall we ask God what He thinks? Discernment is tricky for adults at the best of times but for children without much life experience, they will need a lot of support. Little Chris in my story, ‘A Prayer from the Heart’, has been praying and waiting for a friend along his road for a L – O – N – G time. In the story we aren’t told if this desire had any prophecy tagged along with it. It simply seems to be a child who wants friendship. The desire for friendship is something very good and normal and a reflection of our relational, Trinitarian God.
Friends outside of school and just down the road doesn’t seem like too much to ask for…but will God give it to him…and when?
How can we help children wait?
I think that using some stories from the bible where God’s people had to wait-and-wait-and-wait is a good place to start. These 2 videos show us and kids how hard it was for Abraham & Sarah and Noah to wait. Watch each one and ask your child..
“What did Noah and Sarah have to do when they felt like giving up?”
Noah had to wait for dry land to appear after the flood. Cooped up in the ark with creatures of ever kind that roamed the earth can’t have been easy! Watch this short video with your child and ask…
“What could Noah have done to help pass the time?”
Children as young as 1 year and 2 years of age start to learn to wait through ‘taking turns.
Perhaps having times during the year where we are making a slow journey with a calendar might help? Such as the 40 days of Lent in the run-up to Easter Sunday?
Or an Advent calendar in the run-up to Christmas Day?
Waiting and boredom
When children are bored and don’t have anything to do, they get impatient…but this could be an opportunity to be creative! Boredom is a great opportunity for young children to learn to find something creative to do! The more they can find ways to ‘while away the time’ the better they will become at waiting.
The video below covers various ways to help children learn the art of waiting..
When it comes to waiting for 6 months, or 1 year or longer this will take serious waiting skills. So, as long as your child has experienced several times of waiting throughout life – it will all stand in good stead.
