But how do I learn it?  How do I learn to wait…?  By understanding my  nature  and discovering the only way that my  nature  ever changes…

Bodie has  told me a story  several times…  told it once again yesterday when we were having a  coffee time  on Skype…  the story concerns a Labrador Retriever and his owner….  the owner throws the stick and the little old Lab takes off, grabs the stick and returns… the owner says  “fetch”  and throws it again… the Lab takes off and gleefully returns with the stick to his  master  ….  then his master says:  “stay – be still”… and once again throws the stick…  everything in that Lab wants to roar out after that stick and retrieve… the Lab is quivering… shaking…. doing everything it is capable of doing to hold itself back from  retrieving….

He is a  “retriever”… it is his  nature  to retrieve…  the Lab is not evil….or terrible… because he is shaking and wanting to go…  it is simply a  Lab being a Lab….  but he has learned to obey…

Waiting,  for a human being,  is simply not built into my  nature…  I want to go fetch something… and do it right now…  it is my human nature  … I am not evil or terrible because I respond that way… but I have learned to  listen to my Master…  and wait…

That is only possible because   (Labradors do not have this advantage)   the Lord has put  His very own life  in me to simply  obey Him  and do only what He wants me to do.  In-so-far as this depends on me… that is what I do….. I do only what He wants me to do.

Mostly that is simply… to wait…  (stay – be still, Wolff)….   🙂