Have you ever gotten stuck in a rut? Following the same routine day after day and getting nowhere? When you’re spinning your wheels and seeing no progress, the temptation can be to just quit, walk away, throw in the towel, but there is reason to go on.
Last night I came home at about 9:30 from the night class I teach. The weather here has been unseasonably warm (beautiful!) and our house windows were open.
“Mom…pssst…MOM!” I looked up to see my 13 year old peering through the screen into the darkness at me. When he saw that I had noticed him, he smiled and said, “I made First Class Scout!” I hadn’t seen Matt this happy in a long time. The pride shone through him as he held up his Boy Scout Handbook and shook it in victory and ran to meet me as I came into the house.
As the single mother of five kids, it can be nearly impossible to find one-on-one time with any of my boys. This is especially true of the older two, but that night, I was able to sit with Matt. He told me he had not been having fun at Scouts or in anything for a long time because he felt like he just was not accomplishing anything. He had wanted to make Eagle Scout, but had been a Boy Scout for two years and hadn’t even made it to the rank of first class yet. He may not have used so many words, but I understood he had been feeling like a failure and wondering what the point of continuing was.
There was a renewed sense of joy and urgency about him as he leafed through his Scout book last night. “Mom, do you know if I can get a leadership position and serve for a few months, I may be able to get Star Scout by September and then it’s not so far until Life, and then…”
The excitement continued as he saw himself setting goals and achieving them, and I couldn’t have been happier for him.
While single mothers may not have anything as monumental, concrete, or public as attaining first class, we all need a pat on the back sometimes even if it is just from ourselves. Sometimes, that’s what it takes to get out of the rut we find ourselves in. When we are stuck in a rut, it can seem like we will never achieve our hopes and dreams and it is easy to wonder what the point of continuing is.
Sadly, some people will stop hoping and dreaming, but one of my hopes is that you never stop hoping and dreaming when things do not go according to your plan or your timing. God’s time is not our own and I won’t pretend I always understand his timing or plans, but I do know the Bible says much about waiting faithfully and nothing positive about getting stuck in a rut and giving up.
While you wait for the Lord, do not allow yourself to get stuck in a rut. Get up. Make the changes and achieve the goals that would make you and your Lord proud. Then you will know he was working for you the whole time.
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Wait for the Lord, take courage; be stouthearted, wait for the Lord!
Psalm 27:14