Accepting the Pace of Development of Others

Last weekend, while perusing the booths at the state fair, I was solicited by a young woman who asked me how certain I was that I was going to heaven. In recently understanding the depth of God's mercy, I told her 100%, which threw her for a loop. She then went on about how I must have come to accept Jesus as my personal lord and savior. When I told her that wasn't my path, yet I was sure my connection to God was going to get me to a great place in the afterlife, she looked at me as if I was gassy and not excusing myself. She was headstrong in her dogma, and after speaking with her for a few minutes, realized that she couldn't get that there was a path other than the one she was on. My spirituality is as real and as strong as any person of an organized faith, it's just different. She couldn't grasp that, so I simply told her that if her faith connects her to God and makes her the best person she can be, then I honor it, and her, and bid her a good day. I don't quite think she understood what I was saying, but she was just in a different place in her spiritual and personal development.

Fast forward to today; I'm babysitting my beloved niece and nephew until tomorrow. It's a wonderful blessing to spend time with such wonderful kids, as it is this kind of opportunity that I will look back on fondly after they are grown. And plus, it's just a lot of fun to play like a kid with them.

In reflecting on both the woman at the Christian booth and trying to point out logic to my young niece and nephew, I realize that all people are in their very own process of development (intellectually, physically, emotionally, and spiritually). No two people are in the exact same place in these areas of development and will not understand the things you do, no matter how many different ways you explain them. And this, as a recovering control freak, has been a very hard lesson for me to comprehend. Until today. And truly grasping this idea that not all people will not or cannot understand the things I say, as logical and simple as they seem to me, is crucial for my own development and my growing closer to God. And accepting this concept as a truth is a real test of my patience, empathy, and love of others. I cannot force people to understand--or even force them to want to understand--the important ideas God wants me to share. All I can do is offer, share and help as much as people want to accept, and then leave it to God. God calls all of us to fully connect with God. It just happens at different times and in different ways. Giving my patience and control to God was the only way for me to really understand this. Lao Tzu put it beautifully: nature does not hurry, yet everything is accomplished. This obviously goes for the work of God in all its forms. Something to reflect on. God is most deep.