Sometimes, you have to wait and work...

I'm 20, and yes, I'm still excited for Christmas

Our Heavenly Father cares for us, and wants us to have joy, to have things in our lives that bring us happiness but sometimes, to receive that, you have to wait, and work for it.  One of the biggest parts of God's plan for us to come here to the earth, is to learn and grow, and to gain experiences and learn to persevere.
At times, the greatest of blessings that we can receive and things that we want more than anything else in life, are not simply handed to us; but requires us to work for them, and to wait.
 Now let me give you a few examples, to help illustrate that fact.  Imagine again being a small child, and seeing the Christmas Season unwrap around you, starting from about after Thanksgiving, building up for a month.  Seeing the lights go up, the tree decorated, the music and very essence of life shift; and as a small child, most importantly, the presents multiply underneath the tree.  Parents tell their children, if you want good gifts, you have to be good, or else Santa will only bring you coal (incentive to be good and charitable, in thought of reward in the end).  And to know simply that they cannot be....
opened until that long awaited Christmas morning.  Now for those who are a little bit older, lets look at some examples that are found in scripture.
Remember when Christ restored the church in the early 1800's, Joseph Smith was instructed multiple times through the angelic visitations of the angel Moroni.  And yet for 4 years, he had to return to the hill Cumorah to receive further light and knowledge, before he receive the gold plates to translate. Going back to the Old Testament, with the children of Israel.  After being in the land of Egypt for generations, and being put into heavy bondage and slavery there, they waited and called upon the Lord to deliver them.  With Moses, the Lord worked miracles after much wait, to bring them forth out of the rule of Egypt, to their promised land of inheritance.

Leaving, yet to wander for 40 years

 After generations, deliverance came, and yet upon crossing the Red Sea on dry ground, and having seen many miracles by the hand of God; they further were prolonged to enter the promised land, and wandered in the wilderness of 40 years, until they arrived to that which had been prayed for, for hundreds of years. And even further back in the history of the Bible, while Jacob was in the land of Canaan, he too found how he had to work and wait for the person that he loved beyond anything else in life, even with all of his heart.  "Jacob loved Rachel; and said, I will serve thee seven years for Rachel thy younger daughter." (Gen. 29:18).  And he labored and served for those seven years, and then even seven more years on top of the first "and they seemed unto him but a few days, for the love he had to her." (29:20).  Jacob served and waited for 14 years, to be with the woman that he loved, whom had his heart.
We have times in our lives, when the Lord will require us to wait.  And often that which we desire, we will have the necessity to work for.  But in all of this, that which we love beyond all else, and that God desires for us to have, will come and be blessed into our lives;  sometimes, you have to wait and work.