Anything Important Takes Time

It’s been about three weeks with a new baby, and it has been quite the experience. Like all newborns, she mostly sleeps, eats, and poops.

Let me clarify… She mostly sleeps during the day 🙂

I remember one evening, we were talking about our plan for getting her to bed, and I felt a little frustrated that she wasn’t on a routine with her eating and sleeping yet. My wife looked at me and said, “She’s like 8 days old… Give her some time.”

Give Her Some Time

There was a lot of wisdom in what my wife said. And it didn’t just apply to our daughter and her sleep habits. It was good for me to remember in other areas of my life as well.

The reality was that my daughter is in the process of learning how to live outside of the womb. There’s a lot to take in, experience, and learn. It will take some time to get comfortable and learn what she needs to do.

It All Takes Time

In a similar way, if there’s an area of your life that you would like to grow and develop, it is going to take some time. Anything important—a marriage, skill or expertise, or relationship with God—it all takes time. Malcolm Gladwell said that it takes about 10 years—or 10,000 hours—to develop expertise in anything. That’s a long time! But it reflects a deep truth that anything important takes time to develop. There aren’t many shortcuts in life. If something is important to you, you have to put in the time.

Discussion

Is there an area of your life that you are frustrated about or want to change? Have you put in the time? If not, are you willing to put in the time to get what you really want?