Trust the Process!

I keep repeating these three words on a weekly, sometimes daily basis. 

Learning language is difficult no matter how you do it. No method is perfect. It can be frustrating to not be able to say all you want to say when you want to say it. No matter how many words you have, there is always at least one you really wish you knew or could pronounce correctly. 

The program we have gone to using in the last couple of years is called the Growing Participator Approach. In a lot of ways it is patterned after how we learn our first language as children. We first only hear it, then we speak though simply, and then we begin to speak well and begin to read. Rather than a teacher or professor, we have nurturers who nurture us into the new culture, in similar way that our parents nurtured us into their community. While the approach has a beginning, there is no real end because we are always learning something new about this new culture. 

Last year as we began this approach to learning French, our language coach kept repeating those three little words. Now as I coach our new teammates, I find myself repeating the same words. After a month, they already have almost 900 words in their word log. One may start to point to an object and then pulls the hand back as they second guess themselves. “Trust the process!” Then they begin to point without overthinking it. Same thing happens when they start to speak. They begin to say the word they want to say but stop themselves in the middle of the word. “Trust the process!” Then they begin to let the words flow, may not be conjugated exactly, but they are only a month in to it. 

Last week, as I thought about it and was having my quiet time, I heard God whispering those same three words. “Trust the process!” Trust what He is doing in William’s life and stop trying to fix everything. “Trust the process!” Trust what He is doing in my life and stop fighting against it. Surrender to His work in me. Stop trying to think I can do better or trying to do it in my own strength. Let Him shape me and mold me into the person He created me to be. “Trust the process!” Whether we ever see our stuff from Senegal or not, we are here now where God has moved us, and He is providing for us. 

So to whatever you might be going through, “Trust the process!”