You Must Mean An Adult Minute!

Have you ever heard the phrase "Faster than a New York Minute"? That is a phrase which has come to mean a very short period of time. There is some disagreement on where this term came from, but the most common explanation sounds right to me. According to numerous websites I visited, a "New York Minute" is the amount of time it takes, when a light turns from red to green in New York City, before the person behind you begins honking their horn. In other words, the blink of an eye!!

My eight year old son has coined another term which he calls the "Adult Minute". Just the other day my wife was driving a van full of children home from school. She was multitasking. She is amazing how she can do more than one thing at a time. There she was pulling her hair out and driving simultaneously! HA HA! Somewhere during the trip home my oldest son Ethan asked her if he could do something. I don't know what, and it isn't really important to the story. My wife responded to his request with one of those reliable phrases we parents keep handy: "In a minute!"

Ordinarily this would pacify a youngster for at least that length of time, and if we are fortunate, a little longer. In this case, my wife happened to hear my son's response. It was something like this. "That must be an adult minute...adult minutes are looooong! Kid minutes are short! I wish it was a kid minute and not an adult minute!"

Don't you love the honesty of children? How many times have I felt like this while talking to my Heavenly Father. I ask Him for something and I want it right now! I want it before I ask for it! Do we respond like my son when God does not jump when we snap our fingers? If he delays (or at least seems to delay) and answer to our question, do we get impatient? I confess that I do sometimes. I hope that this little story about my son will help you to remember to be patient when God does not respond immediately in our time frame. Sometime a God minute is longer than a "kid" minute!