Be Patient… Student Driver
As our children grow into their identities as teenagers, young adults, and then full-grown adults one of the most significant measurements of their growth in American culture is obtaining their drivers permit. The permit allows our children to move into the distinct identity of a student driver. For a period of at least a year, the student driver is learning new habits that will make them a successful driver. Often because of the anticipation of the benefits of this new identity as a driver, the process is rushed. There can be an anticipation that borders on impatience.
To aid in overcoming this impatience there are bumper stickers and car top signs that read “Be Patient… Student Driver.” Seeing the sign can be both a warning to stay out of the way of the student driver and a reminder of when we too were learning our new identity.
Learning to be a driver required patience. The same is true for other parts of our identity. Just as we must be patient with the one who is a student driver so too must we be patient with ourselves as we learn the new identities God has called us toward. The identities that remind us that we are fearfully and wonderfully made children of God.
Prayer: God you have made me fearfully and wonderfully. The identity of one who has been made by You requires patience as I seek to overcome the worldly identity imposed upon me. Help me to be willing to be a student of this new identity. Help me to be patient as I learn the identity that only You can reveal.
Play: Place a “bumper sticker” on your car (or location that you will see regularly) that says, “Be Patient…Student _________.” Replace the blank with the new identity you are learning. For example “Be Patient…Student Writer” “Be Patient…Student Lover” “Be Patient…Student Musician” “Be Patient…Student Mother/Father” “Be Patient…Student Wife/Husband.”
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