Wait for it.....

I taught a class on making Ukrainian eggs this last weekend and it was a blast. It got me thinking about patience and waiting, though.

I don't know how much you know about this beautiful art, but Ukrainian eggs can take hours to complete, and you won't know exactly what they look like until the very last step. Each egg goes through repeated layers of wax and dye until your egg looks like something you see on an educational TV channel show featuring things that live in your intestines!

That is the time you want to say, "Ugh, why am I doing this? I'm going to hate it, and it's just a mess." However, if you are patient a little while longer and you remove all the bumpy wax, the rainbow of colors shines out in breathtaking beauty.

It's like magic!

To get to this point, you have to stick to a process you aren't sure is going to work and have faith you'll be rewarded in the end. Sounds like a motto for personal and relational growth work. Stick to the process because you know you are moving toward something beautiful in the end. You may get something you didn't quite expect, and it probably won't look exactly like you thought it would, but it'll be beautiful. True health is always beautiful.

Like all magic, it takes work, skills, and patience.

So think about the steps you have been taking toward getting healthy in yourself and your relationships. Are there any things you have stopped because you aren't waiting long enough for that final wax wipe-off? What things have you done and negated the outcomes because they aren't exactly what you wanted? Were they beautiful (healthy) in their own way? Revisit them.

Think about your changes as slow processes that deserve your patience. The magic is worth it.