Mom poured some cereal in a bowl and set the box in front of me. As I ate, I read the advertisement on the back, and I wanted this baby doll more than anything. Her eyes opened when she sat up and closed when she lay down. But before I ordered her, I needed to collect four box tops from cereal boxes plus send postage.

Eating through four boxes of cereal took an eternity. When I finally sent my order, I had to wait another six to eight weeks for the baby doll to arrive. Almost three months later, she arrived in the mail and was more beautiful than expected. But waiting so long for her almost caused me to forget. As I grew up, I realized I was going to need a lot more patience than waiting for this baby doll. I also learned that trusting in God produces patience.

When we are anxious about a situation, if we can turn our thoughts to God and not the outcome, we will learn patience. We can rest in knowing God’s got this. God has a reason for the delay. Mostly because He’s working something out in us. This is what the book of James says:

Usually, we want what we want and we want it now. And in our culture, that’s how things happen. But God wants us to trust Him, and we learn how to do that in the waiting. The Scriptures affirm that He loves us and wants what’s best for us. It’s hard to trust God during the waiting. We are accustomed to living in a fast world, and we may think He’s forgotten us if the answer doesn’t come immediately.

We may even forget when there is a wait or change our mind. That’s why, legally, in many cases, we’re given three days to change our mind on a contract. It’s human to be impetuous, then change our minds. God even knows our hearts when we don’t.

The verses from James say that patience brings contentment [wanting nothing]. So I would say it like this: our anxious situations come along to work patience in us by trusting God, and the gage of patience is contentment. In other words, when we are content, we know we are trusting for God’s best.

Waiting for the baby doll was nothing compared to what I went through in waiting for a real baby. My faith through trusting God increased as we waited to have children. Ten years after marriage and through a lot of prayer and questioning God, our trust deepened. We would choose God’s will for our lives even if it meant we would be childless.

During that ten years, we were stripped of our wanting. Just when we settled into total trust and contentment about having children or not, God surprised us. We had the amazing privilege of adopting two brothers at the same time, a three-month-old and a two-year-old, in a miraculous series of events. Having these boys in our lives was more wonderful than we could have imagined, and we knew beyond doubt that it was God’s will, not just ours.

The Bible has a lot to say about patience. It says it’s a good thing. It helps us master our souls and then we can appreciate what God brings our way. In Galatians 5: 22, patience is named as a fruit of the spirit. When God’s spirit is planted within us and we nurture the growth, we will reap the benefits of fruit. It is only by coming close to God that we are able to express patience along with the other fruit of the spirit.

The next time you find yourself impatient, slow down, take a deep breath, and remind yourself that you are in God’s care. Trust his timing, allow Him to calm your spirit, and believe He knows best. When you can do that, you will be content with His provision.