It's My Turn

There is an old family video with my daughters, Jessica and Megan, dancing for the camera. They are probably ages 2 and 4. Jessica dances while little Megan waits patiently. Then finally it is Meg's turn. She begins to dance - but Jessica decides to join the fun. Meg says, "My tun! My tun!".  Jessica continues to dance. Megan yells, "MY TUN!" Jessica continues. After several minutes of this Megan has had enough - she goes in for the attack - mouth open - ready to draw blood. Yikes! Time to shut the camera off and parent! Think about how Megan must have felt. She was patient. She sat on the couch waiting her turn. She followed the rule and did what was expected in the beginning. She was ready for her turn. But...she didn't get it. Her turn didn't happen. Wow! Do YOU ever feel that way?  Do you ever feel like jumping up and down and screaming, "My turn! My turn!."  Do you feel like you are following the rules? You are patiently waiting. You are ready!  But hey - when will it actually be My Turn? It is MY turn to get ahead financially!  It's MY turn to catch a break! It's MY turn to be happy, to be  a stay at home mom,  to retire, to have a happy marriage, to lose 20 pounds, to move into my dream home, to be appreciated, to be noticed, and on and on and on. It is MY TURN!!!!

I can relate! I bet you can too!  Let's think about these feelings for a minute. Should we feel this way? We can probably do a great job of justifying these feelings - I mean life is NOT fair - to US anyway. But if we feel this way - then aren't we dwelling on what we don't have and what we feel is wrong?  Is that even emotionally healthy?  My guess is no. Okay...so what should we do?  Anybody remember that old hymn "Count your blessings, name them one by one. Count your blessings, see what God has done." (Stop rolling your eyes. This is still a good idea. Try it.) The best thing to do - the healthiest thing to do - the right thing to do is to focus on what is right in our lives - what we do have - how blessed we truly are. Author, Jon Gordon suggests taking a walk of gratitude each morning - starting our day being thankful for all that we have.

Psalm 16:11 says, "You will show me the path of life, in your presence is fullness of joy; at your right hand are pleasures forevermore."  Wow! So if we trust in the Lord - if we seek His presence - He promises fullness of joy!  Fullness of joy!  If we are screaming “My turn” then we obviously aren’t full of joy.  We aren’t even content.  But what did that verse say . . . in God’s presence . . . so, to be in His presence we must be seeking after Him - right?  So, maybe today it is God who is saying, "My Turn! My Turn!", to us.  He has been patiently waiting.  He is ready for His turn to receive our attention.  Instead of us focusing on so many other things – maybe we should shift our focus to Him!