My four year old daughter and five and a half year old son understand the language of ‘not yet’ very well. Their latest love is the cartoon character Pepper Pig. Like many parents, my wife and limit their time with Pepper. We attempt to teach them delayed gratification. We tell them, you can watch after one hour, or you can watch after dinner time. We have to endure multiple interjections of ‘is it time yet?’. ‘Not yet’ is the answer they have gotten used to.

I believe that what keeps the human spirit going in the face of disappointments, is faith. Faith happens when we retain a silent confidence that good things in our life may take time, but they will certainly happen.

My cousin Shivani has a piece of paper pinned on to her notice board. It has the words ‘Not yet’ scribbled on it in a large letters. When I asked her about it, she told me about one of her professors at university. As the final assessment report for the students, her professor gave out only two grades, ‘Mastered’ and ‘Not yet’! Even if a student hasn’t performed well, all that her report card says is that with some more work, she can!

Sometimes she doesn’t achieve her goals, or fails at getting something done, or some things don’t work out. That’s when the words ‘not yet’ on the paper reminds her that all is not over. Things just haven’t worked out, YET! As long as the goal is worth it, the note reminds her to keep at it, keep working, and keep digging deeper. It will certainly happen. It’s only a question of time.