{"id":452,"date":"2011-05-12T05:14:16","date_gmt":"2011-05-12T09:14:16","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/simplelife\/?p=452"},"modified":"2011-05-11T15:38:21","modified_gmt":"2011-05-11T19:38:21","slug":"waiting-and-other-distractions","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/simplelife\/2011\/05\/waiting-and-other-distractions.html","title":{"rendered":"Waiting and other distractions"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>I admit that there are some things that I do pretty well. \u00a0These are things at which I work hard to do as well as I can. \u00a0They are also things I enjoy. \u00a0My list seems to grow as I get older. \u00a0I enjoy writing, gardening, children, playing, teaching and administration.<\/p>\n

There are several things that I don\u2019t enjoy, however. \u00a0One is waiting. \u00a0As much waiting as I\u2019ve done in my life, you would think that I would have acquired a likin\u2019<\/em> for the process but I still rebel like a 13-year-old when I have to wait for longer than one minute.<\/p>\n

There are some things that I\u2019ve found that are worse than waiting, however. \u00a0Several of them are<\/p>\n

    \n
  1. Having other people have to wait on me.<\/li>\n
  2. Having the people who are waiting for me blow the horn of their car.<\/li>\n
  3. Having my husband have to wait on me.<\/li>\n
  4. Having my husband who is waiting for me blow the horn of the car.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    Recently I watched The Special Gathering of South Carolina program director. \u00a0Special Gathering is a ministry within the mentally challenged community. \u00a0Our mission is evangelism and discipleship for people who are developmentally disabled. \u00a0The SC director was working to get three of her members who are visiting our home in Florida ready for a day at Magic Kingdom in Disney. \u00a0She was reduced to waiting. \u00a0\u201dYou would think that I\u2019d be used to it by now,\u201d she commented in passing.<\/p>\n

    Our conversation quickly deteriorated to the other times we have waited for our members. \u00a0It takes half a day to load a 12 passenger van with people. \u00a0Add luggage and you better plan to spend the day waiting. \u00a0A buffet line can take up to four hours, depending on whether the person in front of you wants everything, wants nothing or changes her mind 37 times before putting the first thing on her plate. \u00a0 In essence, we decided that waiting is one outgrowth of special needs ministry that will either make us stronger or break our strength. \u00a0While this list may not be spiritual, it is benefitial.<\/p>\n

    There are some things that you can do while waiting:<\/p>\n

      \n
    1. Clean your fingernails. \u00a0Cleaning toenails is not recommended.<\/li>\n
    2. Pick your teeth. \u00a0Picking someone else\u2019s teeth is not recommended.<\/li>\n
    3. Prayer at the beginning of the process is recommended.<\/li>\n
    4. Praying by the end of the process is not recommended because the prayers you will find yourself praying will not promote spiritual growth.<\/li>\n
    5. Playing mind games is recommended.<\/li>\n
    6. Playing video or on-line games is not recommended. \u00a0The length of time you will spend playing the game while waiting will put you on such a high level that you will want to cancel the activity and spend the rest of your day playing games.<\/li>\n
    7. People observing is recommended as long as you are not looking at your members trying to get ready.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

      If you are not in special needs ministry, these rules are easily adapted to almost any waiting process. \u00a0Therefore, it is recommended that you \u00a0make a copy of this list and tuck it into a shirt pocket for easy reference to read the next time you are waiting. \u00a0Additonally, it will give you an eighth thing to do while you are waiting.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

      I admit that there are some things that I do pretty well. \u00a0These are things at which I work hard to do as well as I can. \u00a0They are also things I enjoy. \u00a0My list seems to grow as I get older. \u00a0I enjoy writing, gardening, children, playing, teaching and administration. There are several things…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":387,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9,3,40,61,10,16,28,12],"tags":[690,21,688,7,699,703,701,694,689,57,692,700],"class_list":["post-452","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-autism-spectrum","category-developmental-disabilities","category-faith","category-humor","category-inspirational","category-intellectual-disability","category-mentally-challenged","category-religion","tag-autism-spectrum","tag-christian","tag-christianity","tag-developmental-disabilities-2","tag-faith","tag-humor","tag-inspiration","tag-intellectual-disability","tag-mentally-challenged-community","tag-prayer","tag-religion","tag-spirituality"],"yoast_head":"\nWaiting and other distractions - A Simple Life, a Childlike Faith<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"noindex, nofollow\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Waiting and other distractions - A Simple Life, a Childlike Faith\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"I admit that there are some things that I do pretty well. \u00a0These are things at which I work hard to do as well as I can. \u00a0They are also things I enjoy. \u00a0My list seems to grow as I get older. \u00a0I enjoy writing, gardening, children, playing, teaching and administration. There are several things…\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/simplelife\/2011\/05\/waiting-and-other-distractions.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"A Simple Life, a Childlike Faith\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2011-05-12T09:14:16+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2011-05-11T19:38:21+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/simplelife\/files\/2011\/05\/2543731605_b70799e72f.jpg.jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Linda G. Howard\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Waiting and other distractions - A Simple Life, a Childlike Faith","robots":{"index":"noindex","follow":"nofollow"},"og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Waiting and other distractions - A Simple Life, a Childlike Faith","og_description":"I admit that there are some things that I do pretty well. \u00a0These are things at which I work hard to do as well as I can. \u00a0They are also things I enjoy. \u00a0My list seems to grow as I get older. \u00a0I enjoy writing, gardening, children, playing, teaching and administration. There are several things…","og_url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/simplelife\/2011\/05\/waiting-and-other-distractions.html","og_site_name":"A Simple Life, a Childlike Faith","article_published_time":"2011-05-12T09:14:16+00:00","article_modified_time":"2011-05-11T19:38:21+00:00","og_image":[{"url":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/simplelife\/files\/2011\/05\/2543731605_b70799e72f.jpg.jpeg"}],"author":"Linda G. Howard","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/simplelife\/2011\/05\/waiting-and-other-distractions.html","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/simplelife\/2011\/05\/waiting-and-other-distractions.html","name":"Waiting and other distractions - A Simple Life, a Childlike Faith","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/simplelife\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/simplelife\/2011\/05\/waiting-and-other-distractions.html#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/simplelife\/2011\/05\/waiting-and-other-distractions.html#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/simplelife\/files\/2011\/05\/2543731605_b70799e72f.jpg.jpeg","datePublished":"2011-05-12T09:14:16+00:00","dateModified":"2011-05-11T19:38:21+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/simplelife\/#\/schema\/person\/a10d3530d8432a656d648135fe6da739"},"breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/simplelife\/2011\/05\/waiting-and-other-distractions.html#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/simplelife\/2011\/05\/waiting-and-other-distractions.html"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/simplelife\/2011\/05\/waiting-and-other-distractions.html#primaryimage","url":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/simplelife\/files\/2011\/05\/2543731605_b70799e72f.jpg.jpeg","contentUrl":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/simplelife\/files\/2011\/05\/2543731605_b70799e72f.jpg.jpeg"},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/simplelife\/2011\/05\/waiting-and-other-distractions.html#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/simplelife"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Waiting and other distractions"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/simplelife\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/simplelife\/","name":"A Simple Life, a Childlike Faith","description":"Beliefnet Voices - Linda Howard","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/simplelife\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/simplelife\/#\/schema\/person\/a10d3530d8432a656d648135fe6da739","name":"Linda G. Howard","description":"Linda G. Howard is the best-selling and award-winning author of four books, including MOTHERS ARE PEOPLE, TOO and THE SECRET LIFE OF A HOUSEWIFE. Currently, she serves as area director of The Special Gathering, a ministry within the mentally challenged community. Additionally, she is the co-publisher and editor of CONNECTING POINT, the ministry newsletter. Her husband is a retired aerospace technologist who worked for NASA. They have three children and four grandchildren.","sameAs":["http:\/\/specialgathering.wordpress.com"],"url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/simplelife\/author\/lhoward"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/simplelife\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/452","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/simplelife\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/simplelife\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/simplelife\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/387"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/simplelife\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=452"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/simplelife\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/452\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":486,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/simplelife\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/452\/revisions\/486"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/simplelife\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=452"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/simplelife\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=452"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/simplelife\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=452"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}