In College, I heard this poem and recently it came back to mind. I’ve searched around and most version I found were the same and most author’s were cited as Unknown, but Robert J. Burdette was also credited with writing it. Regardless, it has a great message of how we as humans want to fix things and not trust God to, not be patient enough to wait for His timing.
Broken Dreams
As children bring their broken toys
With tears for us to mend.
I brought my broken dreams to God
Because He was my Friend.
But then instead of leaving Him
In peace to work alone,
I hung around and tried to help
With ways that were my own.
At last I snatched the back and cried,
“How could You be so slow”-
“My child,” He said,
“What could I do? You never did let go.”
My thoughts… Jesus wants us to share our struggles with Him
“Cast all your anxiety on him because he cares for you.” – 1 Peter 5:7 (NIV)
“The hard scripture to live by is ‘Do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God.'” Philippians 4:6
So much easier said than done…
“And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.” Philippians 4:7
But the reward is great, a peace, we may not understand what we are going through, or why we are going through it, but we can have a peace in our hearts until we do, or until it doesn’t matter any longer. While in college, my grandfather was on his deathbed. I wanted to see him one last time, but I was supposed to be in my best friends wedding, as best man. The night before the wedding came and I got a call from my sister, and I had a peace that it was time to go. Throughout the next 18 or so hours I questioned why now? What would be one more day? Then I saw my grandmother, and she was so worn out, I questioned if she would have lasted much longer, seeing her husband of over 50 years struggle to breath…. there was the understanding that came after the peace. If it would always come that quickly it would be nice, but it doesn’t always.
I think the day we live day to day, how we treat others, how we work at our job, how we talk to others, the language we in everyday conversation, how we treat that checkout lady at Walmart that is one working one of the 3 lanes open on a Saturday afternoon, matters… I mention all this because in verse 8 it says
“Finally, brothers and sisters, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable—if anything is excellent or praiseworthy—think about such things.” Philippians 4:8
I think part of our peace that God gives us comes from the way we live our lives daily and this scripture coming right after verse 6 and 7 which talks about peace is no coincidence?