What Difference Does It Make?

Have you ever seen someone trying or have you, yourself, tried to tell a 2 year old to wait? You are asking for a serious fight! The word "wait" is not in their vocabulary yet and at that age "wait" translates to 'scream louder and they'll give it to you now.' But an adult knows acquiring the skill to wait will come in very handy in a few years for the toddler. As a matter of fact it could save their life later on.

My siblings and I lived on a busy street growing up. We were not allowed to play in the driveway, especially if my youngest sister was going to be with us. The day finally came when we ignored our parents' warning; the big kids were racing down the driveway to the street. Of course we knew to stop at the sidewalk and not go into the street but my little sister hadn't quite grasped the concept yet. She was just excited about running with us. Well you can guess what happened. She didn't stop at the sidewalk, she ran right out into the street! No matter how we yelled "WAAAIT," it didn't register. By the time we got to the end of the driveway, she was on the other side of the road staring back at us. All I could think of was how much trouble I was in and how much danger she was in. Would she try to run back? Cars were rushing back and forth, she had no idea how to get back across the street to us. All of her excited laughter from a moment ago had ceased and she just stood there, blank-faced. And even though it didn't work the first time, we kept yelling it "wait...wait!" A break in the stream of traffic came and my big brother hurried across the street, picked her up and hustled back across to our side. She was fine, my parents never found out and most of all my little sister completely understood the word "wait" from that moment on.

So why wait? What difference does it make? Do good things really come to those who wait? Are there any real benefits? In my experience waiting didn't always seem to be in my favor. As a young person I often felt this whole waiting thing was working against me, hindering my enjoyment of life. It seemed back then that waiting only caused me to miss out on all the fun and excitement. But as they say hindsight is always 20/20 and it's easy for me now to see why and how situations could have turned out much better had I only exhibited a little self-restraint and waited. I'd definitely be much more financially stable just to name one area that comes quickly to mind. In the past, I've been like that 2 year old when it came to money.  Just didn't take the time to count up all the costs before frivolously spending money that could have been saved for much more important things later. What area comes to mind for you? Is it really that hard to wait?

Why wait to eat that piece of cake until after dinner? Why wait for the light to turn from red to green before you step on the gas? Why wait and go to the frat party next week? Why wait to move out on your own? Why wait until you calm down before you tell them how you feel? Why wait to have sex? Why wait to spend that $50? Why wait to dye your hair orange? Why wait until you're older? Is it true that old saying "anything good is worth waiting for?"

All of us find ourselves waiting for one reason or another. I just wanted to get the ball rolling tonight. Hopefully this blog will provoke some discussions that you can learn from, grow from and who knows, we may get to the bottom of that age-old question "why wait?" Would love you to share your comments. You can post them here and on my Facebook page.  Maybe we can even do a WhyWh8 chat night on Facebook eventually. Be encouraged until next time.