GOD, GIVE HER TIME_ BY AJULO ESTHER OLAMIDE

Sometimes, I think about the women in the Bible, and I wonder if we remember that before they became the women we celebrate, they were women who had to live through things they probably didn't understand.

Esther was an orphan. She faced mortal terror. She had to make a decision that could cost her life. Deborah had a battle to fight before we could speak of her victory.

And I think about these women, and then I think about myself.

Because, honestly, I'm always in a hurry. I want to work for a year and see the results, sharp sharp. I want to know that the things I'm doing are working. I want to see the evidence that I'm getting somewhere.

But what if some things take time because there's something I need to learn along the way?

What if some of the things I'm so desperate to escape are the very things that will teach me something I wouldn't have learnt otherwise?

I mean, if I had never experienced this restlessness, would I have learnt the importance of patience? If I had never had to sit with uncertainty, would I have learnt to trust God even when I couldn't see what He was doing?

Sometimes, we call it trials and tribulations. Sometimes, we call it a difficult season. And sometimes, we look back and realise that we received rhema in places we were only praying to escape.

There are things you learn in the waiting that you might never learn in the arrival.

And I'm not saying that every painful experience is something God deliberately sends, or that we must remain in situations that are harming us. I'm saying that even in the things we don't understand, there can be wisdom to receive, lessons to learn, and perspectives we might never have discovered otherwise.

Perhaps that's why I'm learning not to measure every season by what it produces immediately.

Because Esther didn't know how her story would end when she approached the king. Deborah didn't have the victory before the battle. And I don't know what every single thing I'm doing today will become tomorrow.

But I'm learning.

I'm becoming.

And perhaps, for now, that is enough.

God, give me time.

Time to learn what I need to learn. Time to grow into the things I'm praying for. Time to become a woman who can carry the very things she's asking You for.

And when I become restless, when I start comparing my progress to someone else's, when I begin to mistake a slow season for a failed life, remind me that I'm still here, still learning, still becoming.

Because maybe the woman I'm praying to become needs the wisdom I'm gathering as the woman I am today.

And maybe, just maybe, I don't need to rush every part of the process.

God, give her time.

Give me time. 

©AJULO ESTHER OLAMIDE (HADASSAH)

-Nigeria.