Before anything else: God loves you the exact same amount today, exactly the way you are right now, without you needing to earn anything first.
Imagine your teacher gave you a little bean in a cup with cotton wool. Every day you water it a little, put it in the sun, and keep checking to see if anything has sprouted. At first nothing happens. Then, one day, a tiny white root shows up. Then a leaf comes.
Now imagine someone comes along and gives you a plant that's already big, all ready, in a pretty pot.
Which of the two are you going to take better care of?
Almost always it's the cotton wool one. Not because it's prettier. It's because you were there every day. You know how much water it needs, how much sun it wants, and how many days it took. You learned how to care for it while it was growing.
Today's verse talks about money, but it applies to everything. When something arrives too fast, you end up holding it without having had time to learn how to take care of it.
Waiting is boring, we know. But waiting teaches you things. And while you wait, God isn't just sitting still. He's preparing you for the day the thing arrives.