Imperfect Timing

Mary Todd, the future wife of Abraham Lincoln, had a flair for fashion.

As a young lady, she lived with her sister in Springfield, Illinois, and everyone admired her clothing. Even as a child, she loved to dress up and put flowers in her hair.

As a maturing girl, she gazed longingly at the hooped skirts adult ladies wore and begged her stepmother for one. To her dismay, her stepmother refused.

Mary shared a bedroom with a girl related to her stepmother, and the two girls enjoyed a close friendship. One day she suggested they might make their own hooped skirts. She had observed the weeping willow tree on her father’s property and imagined how she might use the limbs.

One Saturday afternoon, the two girls chopped numerous branches and hid them in Mary’s bedroom. After supper, they begged to go to bed early, but they didn’t sleep. Instead, they stayed up and sewed the limbs on the inside of their skirts.

The next morning, the girls slipped out of the house in their grown-up dresses. Mary wanted to walk to church before her family. However, Mary’s stepmother found them and scolded them.

If the girls had appeared in their contrived outfits, they might have been teased. The skirts did flair in the front, but the sides drooped miserably.

Mary didn’t want to wait until she was grown to dress like a lady. She longed for something good, but she needed to wait. In the same way, I often rush ahead without considering God’s timing. I’m learning to wait for God. Will you join me?

“I wait for the LORD, my soul does wait, And in His word do I hope” (Psalm 130:5 NASB 1995).

Cynthia L. Simmons is an award-winning author, speaker, Bible teacher and former homeschool mother. She writes a column for Leading Hearts magazine, homeschool curriculum, conducts writing workshops, is a certified writing coach and the former president of Christian Authors Guild.

Cynthia L. Simmons
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