Fishing Requires Patience...And A Lot Of It

08 December 2012


Growing up there are certain things that parents are almost expected to do.
One of those things for fathers is to take their kids fishing.
To a lot of fathers this may seem like a daunting task for them to handle.
However, it brings much joy and many memories to both the father and the kids.
Most of the first times going will include teaching the kids how to bait their hook (depending on the kids age), how to cast their line, what to wait for while their hook is in the water (maybe watching a bobber), and how to reel in their line when
they have caught the much sought after fish.
The father spends time teaching the kid(s) how to handle their fishing pole in order to cast their line the farthest distance.
Once they know how to properly hold and handle their fishing pole, the father then spends time helping them practice casting their line out.
Now if there is more than one kid, casting out their lines becomes a competition.
They want to see who can cast their lines the farthest out into the body of water.
This will be fun for a while but sooner or later they will once again focus on what they are there to do.
They will cast their line(s) out and be excited to catch a fish.
However, being kids their patience is pretty much zero, so they reel in shortly there after.
Disappointed that they didn't catch a fish they cast their line again.
Again they reel it in not long after they cast out.
They continue doing this and are repeatedly discouraged and dismayed as they are not catching any fish.
This cycle repeats throughout the fishing trips while the child is young.
The goal is that as they get older they will eventually learn the patience that is necessary to fish and they will cast their lines out and then wait as long as it takes, or as long as is possible, to catch a fish.
Once they learn that patience the fishing trips have a whole new meaning and a whole new goal.
The kid(s) looks forward to the fishing trips and all of the fish that they will catch.
This is also a great bonding time for father and son/daughter.
The development of patience in the kid makes the fishing trips much more enjoyable and much less stressful for both parent and kid.

This common experience can easily be related to our relationships with God.
Once we give out lives to Him we are His children.
We are at the beginning of (hopefully) a life long relationship with our Heavenly Father.
At the beginning we are just so full of joy because of our relationship with God.
We give Him everything, or so we seem to.
We give Him all these things and we say that we trust Him to help us.
Yet the minute we lose patience with His timing we give up completely and we decide to assume control again.
When that does not work and we realize we need God to help us out with whatever it is, we give it to Him once again.
This is going well at first and we are hopeful, but things do not go as quickly as we want them to nor do they happen exactly how we want them to, so we once again take the reigns.
We do this over and over in our relationship with God.
We give Him the things in our life that we want Him to change or to have control over (and hopefully this is our whole lives) and we feel so happy and hopeful after we initially do so.
But then life happens.
We see things happening for everyone else and we start to wonder why things are not happening for us.
We question whether or not God is really working.
This eventually leads to us thinking that we know best and we take over and do things our way.
Over time we realize how wrong this is and we surrender things to God and ask Him to help us trust Him and have patience as we wait for His plan to unfold. 
As our relationship with God gets longer and gets stronger He does work in us and we gradually learn to be more patient about waiting for His plan to unfold in our lives.
This eventually leads to us having complete and total trust in God and His plan.
We learn that trusting Him and having patience eventually leads to the greatest rewards.
He rewards us for our trust and patience while we are still on this earth, but He has a reward that far outweighs them.
The ultimate reward for our trust and patience is getting to spend eternity with our Heavenly Father.

The more we trust Him and develop our patience the more joyful our relationship with God will be.
We will have rough times where we are discouraged and dismayed, but with trust and patience He will be with us through those times and He will bring us through them.
The more we cast our lives and our cares on Him and trust Him to handle them rather than reeling them back to ourselves the better our lives will be and the greater joy we will find in our relationship with our Heavenly Father.

"Cast your cares on the LORD
and he will sustain you;
he will never let
the righteous be shaken."
-Psalms 55:22

"Cast all your anxiety on him because he cares for you." -1 Peter 5:7

Remember to cast your cares, your anxieties, and overall, your life onto God and He will take care of you!!

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