A Powerful Four and... waiting

We spend a lot of our life waiting.  Especially in the high- traffic area my family lives in, my family spends a lot of our time waiting in traffic.   My husband and I spent a lot of time waiting to find each other.  I was reminded of this when I visited with a good friend last week and remembered through her travails the not so pleasant parts of dating and yearning for someone.  It seems that I didn't find my husband until I had finally resolved to "lean into" waiting than running from it.  The waiting was for good purpose.  If I had met my husband earlier in my life, I wouldn't have been wise enough to see him for the gem he was and I wouldn't have gotten some things out of my system that I needed to.  Watching my young son wait, for Christmas and for his next birthday, is a reminder for me.

If we don't wait for something, if we get instant gratification, it's just not as special and we take it for granted.  I have the opportunity to review a great book by Jeannie Ewing, Waiting With Purpose.  It's a particularly relevant book this time of year and will be posting the review soon.

Many people try to skip past Advent and go straight to Christmas.  I smiled as my son reminded my husband as they set up a nativity scene, "Daddy, it's not Christmas yet so Jesus doesn't go on the manger yet."  This was a special tradition from my family as well as the Advent Calendar, Advent Wreath and encouragement to go to the Sacrament of Reconciliation at this time of year.  Not only do we get the house ready with decorations and prepare gifts for others and bake cookies, but it's time to get our hearts ready too.  Consider doing something special this Advent and "lean into" the wait.  Come Christmas, the wait and anticipation will be worth it.

Now that I've made you wait for why I titled this post... My son has been showing some signs of frustration with not being in control of things (I know this is a problem many of us adults have too).  I spoke with him and told him instead of throwing tantrums or saying hurtful things to others, when he felt like he wasn't being listened to, or was frustrated, he could throw his arm up in the air and declare, "I'm a powerful 4!".   I don't know where I came up with this idea, but this sounded better than the other things he was saying and I wanted to give him some feeling of self- empowerment.  Later on that night we were out to dinner at a nice restaurant and he was getting tired and wanted to go home.  He let everyone know he was a powerful 4!  The smile on his face made the situation slightly less embarrassing than it could have been...