Step 1: Wait

I had the chance to bake this week. I've been baking now for about 20 years, and I love it.  To me, it's a way of expressing my artistic side with some flour, egg, sugar and usually, some chocolate.  In the beginning, I wasn't very patient.  I'd try to rush through steps and the end product would always show it.  At one point I realized I needed to slow down and do each step until it was thoroughly completed. 

Bring the water to a full boil.  Mix until the cream held stiff, not medium, peaks.  Add the sugar slowly, rather than all at once.  Don't forget the baking soda in the chocolate chip cookie dough. 

So as I was baking this week, I reminded myself that I needed to do each step to perfection before moving on to the next step. 

And then it hit me: God does the same thing with us.  He is patient.  He takes us through each step of growth and waits until we've completed it to His satisfaction, and then He will move us on to the next step. 

Learn to forgive that person.  Purge the bitterness.  Empty myself.  Gain compassion.  Learn wisdom through trials.  Know Him.

Love. 

The only thing is, I also have the same impatience I had in creating a pastry or a cake in God's process of creating me who He wants me to be.  I need to remember that I can't hurry the step God has me in right now or the end result will not be the same. 

I don't know exactly what God is creating me to be, but I do know that He is the consummate Craftsman.  He has a vision and I need to trust Him with each step.  And ultimately, if I slow down and yield to Him, I will be honored to mirror the supreme Artist.

"Why do you say, O Jacob, and speak, O Israel, 'My way is hidden from the LORD, and my right is disregarded by my God'? Have you not known? Have you not heard? The LORD is the everlasting God, the Creator of the ends of the earth. He does not faint or grow weary; his understanding is unsearchable. He gives power to the faint, and to him who has no might he increases strength. Even youths shall faint and be weary, and young men shall fall exhausted; but they who wait for the LORD shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings like eagles; they shall run and not be weary; they shall walk and not faint."  (Isaiah 40:27-31)