Patience and Christmas Presents

This year for Christmas I got Cody what I think is the best present I've ever gotten him. I'm so excited I don't even know how I stand it! I am DETERMINED to not give him his present early like we have every year since we've been married. I was also determined to just pretend like I had no idea what I was getting him but then he came home and saw that I had been using his HDMI cable because I didn't plug it back in the right hole, port, whatever, And when he asked about it he knew it was about Christmas. I keep getting so tempted to just give it to him because hey, he's going to get it anyway, right? Right??? But then I got to really thinking about it. Yeah, I could give him his present early, nothing bad would happen. The world wouldn't end, I wouldn't be jeopardizing my eternal salvation or hurting anyone and I wouldn't have to wait and be patient anymore! And we would have, what, three extra weeks to enjoy it. But what if I do wait and do it properly? What then?? Well, first of all, I would be exercising my patient muscle. Secondly I wouldn't be taking the fun out of Christmas. Not having any presents to open Christmas morning isn't very fun.

There are some things in life that we know that one day we will have that we just have to wait for. It might take three days, three weeks, three months, three years, three decades, a whole lifetime! but eventually the promised blessing does come. Heavenly Father knows He's going to give it to us, so why make us wait? Well, because it has to be the right time. That's important. And we need to be given the opportunity to wait, especially for things that we really want. It helps us to learn patience and to learn to trust in the Lord and most importantly that we CAN trust in the Lord! That He will be there for us and that he will deliver as promised. Cody knows that I love him, and that he can trust me and that I know enough about him to get him a really great Christmas present. He knows that if he waits that he will eventually get his Christmas present--at the right time, that I'm not just going to promise it and then give it to someone else. 

I have also been given the unique opportunity to figure out how to do something on my own that normally I would have just asked Cody to do. Not only do I now have the great joy, pride and satisfaction of figuring it out and doing it all on my own but now I know that I CAN do it, and that I can do things on my own. And being able to show Cody those accomplishments makes the joy of giving him the present even sweeter. 

Think of all of the things we miss out on that we would not experience if we were always given what we want exactly when we want it, things you and I wouldn't even think of. Think of the great joy we can experience when we can tell our Heavenly Father, look what I did!! And how very proud of us He would be.

I am grateful for the opportunities that I have had to wait, even though I don't like them. At all. I am grateful for the things that I have learned. I would wait again and again to know my Heavenly Father and my Savior the way I know them now. To feel that love, to know what I know, and to know that I can do it! I can wait, I can find joy, I can survive the trial and come out stronger and better.

Yeah, it's just a Christmas present, and it's just three weeks, but if I can't wait and be patient for something as small as that then I am definitely not applying what I have learned.