Things become clear in their own time

“Think it over. God will make it all plain.”

— 2 Timothy 2:7 (MSG)

My friend was recently sharing how she’d like to tell her adult grandchildren what mistakes they are making. But it frustrated her, because they won’t allow her to say anything to them.

I mentioned that I’ve tried the same thing with mine. But I realize some things they just have to experience in order to learn the lesson God intends for them to learn. So I just have to allow them to go through the experience.

To gain knowledge from experience, you have to have an awareness of what you have learned, what you could have done differently, or what you did right. Learning from experience is learning from doing or having done to us and then reflecting on that.

How many times in our own lives have we either thought we knew how to handle something, were stubborn and wanted to do it our way, or were simply deceived about what we were doing?

Then one day, we suddenly have a revelation or an insight comes to us that we never understood before. That leaves us saying to ourselves, “How did I miss that? It’s so simple!” Some people refer to this as an “aha” moment.

Oftentimes, our new insights can be so dramatic that we want to share them with everyone. We are so excited by the revelation we want to make sure everyone can experience what we know and understand as well.

Many times, in doing so, we may find that others have crossed that path long before us, or lag behind and don’t really understand our revelation.

The Christian life is one of transformation; this process includes revelations and insights that come through a thought given to us by God’s Holy Spirit, which are meant to cause a transformational change in our lives. They may cause a change of direction, a new way of looking at something, or a relationship change.

The Bible gives us a clear example of this when the apostle Paul was trying to get a point across to his young mentee, Timothy. But he realized he couldn’t get through. He would have to allow Timothy to think it over and let God make the revelation plain to him.

So, when we are frustrated with our younger loved ones because they lack understanding, we can pray and ask God to broaden their understanding and make it clear to them. By doing so, God may give us a fresh revelation of our own.

• Annettee Budzban is a Christian author, speaker, life coach and nurse. She can be contacted at annetteebudzban@aol.com or (847) 543-8413.