"God's delays are not God's denials"

I believe this is another quote I discovered from Anthony Robbins. At the time it was of no value to me. I was young, just experimenting with self help, and new to spiritual awareness. In all honesty words like "God" and phrases like "spiritual awareness" set alarm bells ringing. I was in pain and in a hurry, and wanted tangible, actionable stuff to make it right. As I write nearly 25 years later, the pain has gone and the anxious urgency has gone too. Eckhart Tolle was a huge breakthrough for me in this regard. His work shone a light on my poor relationship with Time. Before that I discovered Anthony Robbins in my 20s and some of his books helped me manage quite a few dissatisfactions.

I had a major hangup when i was young. It was unreasonably asking myself multiple times a day, Why wasn't I finished? With equally unhelpful questions like Why were my friends better? Why can't i be confident, successful, more than I was at the time. I felt hard done by. I definitely created myself a victim identity and I wasn't happy at all at being a late developer. I was equating not being finished with never feeling more finished. Not being content with never being content. Not being at ease with never being at ease and so on. This is what this quote is about. I often try to remind myself...

Delays are not denials.

I would love to have been able to tell 20 year old me that things would get better. That just because I hadn't woken up that morning complete, fully formed and ready for world domination, didn't mean that I wouldn't improve drastically, in days, months and years. Thinking about it now, not being prepared to allow the time to receive what you have asked for, is almost ridiculous. Imagine if you went into a restaurant and ordered your main, then made yourself feel awful while they were cooking it. Look they have their dinner. Why can't I have my dinner? Will I ever get my dinner?

I try to remember to allow the time to get what I have asked for, or what I am working towards. Because I don't have it yet, doesn't mean it isn't coming. Patience is it's own reward, because I feel if you take your focus off of the future event, you enjoy the journey to it. To go back to the analogy with the restaurant; I try not to sit there waiting for my dinner. I can trust it is coming and enjoy being.