“Mark ran up the stairs and away from the big black cat, he wrapped his arms around his skinny body trembling with fright…”
I lay beside my 4 years old, listening to him read fluently from an old storybook. I smiled thoughtfully as my heart swelled with so much pride.
A few months ago, pronouncing three-letter and four-letter words were a great struggle which made my heart worry. It didn’t occur to my ‘overly expectant self’ that Seddie was just 4 years old and had donkey years to perfect the art of pronunciation and reading. I was simply impatient and wanted instant results like I always do when life brings me into a new phase.
I vividly recall my first conversations with his class teacher at the beginning of this school year on his perceived slow pace of pronunciation and reading. She calmly but knowingly assured me that his progress was fine and given TIME he will pronounce all words and read fluently. Despite being laden with this information, I still went ahead to change Seddie’s favorite pre-stored cartoons to different episodes of alphablocks and numberblocks (a learning CBeebies series for children), shutting my ears to his many appeals.
Looking back now, it is absurd, silly and I am so mortified at how hard I pushed Seddie, paying a deaf ear to the teacher’s and even my husband’s assurances of his capabilities.
When going through a growth process, we are often so hard on ourselves and our loved ones with all the unsubstantiated goals, that we neither enjoy the process nor glean its lessons.
Time not only heals and teaches us, but it also reveals all folly; eventually, Time and good tutoring proved both Seddie’s class teacher and my husband right. Seddie now reads well and pronounces most words and sentences accurately.
Just like Seddie’s reading process, a number of us do not appreciate our progress and growth cycle. We rant, push, and criticize ourselves at every seemingly perceived slow progress. Leaving us disgruntled, agitated, and never appreciative of our growth process and its attendant lessons.
We often complain through our journey, comparing the milestones, processes, and growth of other people with ours, forgetting that every Life uniquely different, so also is its journey and progressions.
I recall how I hurried wanted to move through the ranks in my career, speedily smash on all KPIs, top all promotion lists, etc, and the many times I groaned and cried that the process was too slow and results weren’t showing forth with all the effort invested. Little did I know that I required that season to blossom from timidity to confidence, from ignorance to knowledge, from curiosity to clarity… I am a better person today because of this phase
Life is a process and it takes cognizant of every effort we put in towards achieving a goal, task, or vision. Never lose sight of that truth!
Time and season will always happen, just be kind to yourself, patient with the growth phase, count your blessing, find joy within the perceived stagnancy, learn, encourage others but never truncate the process.
Remember that every phase you find yourself in is a process that will lead you to an expected end. (For I know the thoughts that I think toward you, saith the Lord, thoughts of peace, and not of evil, to give you an expected end – Jer. 29 v 11)
Remember that every day of your life has been scheduled like Psalm 136 v 16 says-You saw me before I was born and scheduled each day of my life before I began to breathe. Every day was recorded in your book.
Just live and enjoy the process!
Image credit – jeremy-bishop-vGjGvtSfys4-unsplash.jpg
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