Being Patient and Kind When Your Plans Are Interrupted
I don’t do well with interrupted plans. I wrote the following post several years ago, but I need the reminder regularly. If you have trouble being patient and kind when your plans are interrupted, too, this is for you. I pray it blesses you.
Being Patient and Kind When Your Plans Are Interrupted
Morning birdsong twists through the sleepy spruce needles, and a grey squirrel carries a mouthful of leaves across the deck. I sit by the window and get lost in the scene as I read Psalms and sip black coffee. I have no idea that this morning’s quiet time is about to become a test of being patient when my plans are interrupted.
“It’s Friday, and we haven’t practiced my spelling list. The test is today,” my responsible daughter declares from behind me, interrupting my morning reverie.
The last thing I feel like doing at this moment is practicing spelling words. Before responding to her, I consider my options: I can set aside this life-giving Bible reading and patiently listen to the recitation of 20 two-syllable words, or I can tell my little girl to do her best and see how things turn out.
“Go get your list,” I respond, desperately trying to sound peppy instead of irritated.
We plunge into the list, and my shoulder blade twitches with stress as I glance at the clock and think about everything I need to do this morning.
“Lord, help me embrace this moment with my child,” I pray quietly.
Let Anxiety Be a Prompt
Suddenly, I see my twitching shoulder blade in a new light.
Instead of sending me down a heart-racing trail of anxiety, the twitch feels like a prompt. It’s like a gentle whisper saying, “Stacey, something is not right. You are anxious because you’re looking ahead again. Breathe. Love your daughter. Be present.”
The whisper immediately reframes my perspective.
I pause to admire my sweet girl’s long brown hair.
I let myself marvel at the way her pink shirt drapes over her long arms, and I wonder where the years have gone.
We slowly practice all 20 words, and we don’t hurry so I can get back to the “more important tasks” of Bible reading and coffee drinking.
After my little girl scurries upstairs to finish getting ready for school, I have an honest moment with myself. Who am I to say that reading my Bible first thing every morning is always the most important task?
Bible reading is a good way to begin each day, but when I’m so fixed on my agenda that I fail to receive an interruption straight from the hand of God, it’s safe to say I’m not walking in step with the Spirit.
Being Patient When Life Is Interrupted
What about you, friend?
When’s the last time an interruption tested your patience—even for a moment?
Maybe it was a long line of red lights when you were late for a meeting.
It might have been a phone call from a friend at exactly the wrong time.
Maybe it was an errand your husband asked you to add to an already endless list, a child holding a book, or an unexpected knock on your door.
Determining which interruptions are worthy of our attention requires discernment. A phone call from a friend when you’re on a date with your husband, a ding on your social media feed when you’re entrenched in work, or an incoming text message when you’re having a quiet moment in prayer probably aren’t interruptions you should tend to.
However, many interruptions are opportunities to embrace your calling. In his book The Reaching Out: The Three Movements of the Spiritual Life, Henri Nouwen wrote:
“While visiting the University of Notre Dame, where I had been a teacher for a few years, I met an older experienced professor who had spent most of his life there. And while we strolled over the beautiful campus, he said with a certain melancholy in his voice, ‘You know, my whole life I have been complaining that my work was constantly interrupted, until I discovered that my interruptions were my work.'”
The Interruptions Are Our Work
Throughout most of my adult life, self-effort has been goading me to focus on the work in front of me and always put work first. Self-effort tells me to send away anything that interrupts my work.
Meanwhile, God’s grace offers a different invitation.
Grace tells me to slow down, lean into the Lord, and recognize that the interruptions to my work are the work.
I want to learn to see life’s daily interruptions as my high and holy calling. We become women of grace when we learn to stop resenting the people who interrupt our work.
Sweet friend, the people are our work.
We become women of grace when we learn to stop resenting the people who interrupt our work. Sweet friend, the people are our work. #interruptions #love Click To Tweet
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