By Elizabeth Prata
“…Yet”. At my school we have a saying. If a child says “I’m not strong enough to cross the monkey bars,” we say “…yet.” If a student says “I can’t do subtraction with regrouping!” we respond, “…yet.” When a kid says “I’m no good at art!” we reply, “…yet.”
The yet is to give them hope for the future, that what seems impossible now will become possible tomorrow. It’s to give them tacit permission to allow themselves to grow and learn and wait. Space to add knowledge and have it confirmed in practice, that what they find a non-reality now will become a reality in the future.
I was thinking about these things when I read of Sarai’s comment to Abram in Genesis 16:2
And Sarai said to Abram, “Behold now, the LORD has prevented me from bearing children. Go in to my servant; it may be that I shall obtain children by her.” And Abram listened to the voice of Sarai.
And as Adam listened to the voice of Eve… and not the voice of the LORD, Abram and Sarai sinned.
Sarai should have said, ‘Behold now, the LORD has prevented me from bearing children, yet. But I can’t wait until our promised child arrives!’ But no. She did not wait for the yet.
How many times had the LORD promised Abram offspring? In Genesis 12, Genesis 13, repeatedly in all of Genesis 15 in an amazing covenant ceremony. But by the beginning of Genesis 16, Sarai had apparently given up and decided that the LORD had “prevented” her from having children. See her subtle blame-shift there?
Not good. The Lord’s word is true.
For the word of the LORD is upright, and all his work is done in faithfulness. (Psalm 33:4).
Wait for the ‘yet’. If you’re going through a trial and you’re sure you can’t stand it another moment, wait for the yet. If you’re having financial hardship, wait for the yet. If you’re enduring a terrible medical diagnosis, wait for the yet. If you are frustrated with where the word has gone out from your lips and not come back full, wait for the yet (it will not come back void).
True, some of these issues and hardships and trials will be resolved on the other side of the veil and not on earth, but that is still a yet. You’re not healed, yet. You’re not strong enough, yet. You’re not effective enough, yet. You’re not able enough, yet. You don’t have children, yet.
It will happen. The Lord promised life abundant and everlasting.
the-end-time.org 
I love this, sister! I say this with Kayliegh during her lessons. She wants to do so many things, she wants to do perfect push ups, she wants to hit a homerun, she wants to invent amazing machines, she wants to be a scientist, she wants to go into palm reader shops and share the Gospel, she wants to track down Mormon missionaries and tell them about Gods Word…and when she can’t do all the things right away she gets so discouraged. I have to remind her about the things she couldn’t do last year that she can do this year. It’s amazing how easy it is to encourage her, but how incredibly difficult it is to encourage my own sinful heart. Thank you for this article, sister, I will be in prayer for your students!
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Thank you, Sister! I say that to myself often, “I don’t understand this passage…yet.” Or on hard days, “The Lord hasn’t come back…yet!” 🙂
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Hi. Random question…I am trying to find out if there is a pdf available for the Biblical Doctrine study? I see that the Beautiful Things website is no longer online. Do you know if she ever finished it? I have the first 5 chapters printed out and came back to find the rest! Hopefully someone knows the answer. Thanks!
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Hi Carly,
Sadly, no, there is no .pdf for the remainder of the Biblical Doctrine study. Jess decided to go offline and did not finish producing the study sheets.
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Okay, thank you for answering me!
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