A Season of Waiting

Recently, in a facebook message to a friend, I spouted off with exasperation the words I knew I needed to articulate -- that angst that we feel as women -- that inherent annoyance with the inevitable condition we live with and know as waiting. This is how I feel. It's like I let my heart in on all the fun and then I find out that sadly, it has to hang up the jump rope after a while...that that stupid lie - "Nothing Good Lasts Forever" is chasing my heart, trying to join in on a game of double dutch.

As I plucked each character out from my keyboard, I remembered what my Grandma had told me in a recent phone conversation. "It seems that a girl waits her whole life -- a little girl waits to go to school, waits to get braces off, waits for summer camp, waits for someone to like her, waits for the homecoming dance, waits to graduate, to get a job, to date, to fall in love, to be married, to have kids, to help them live their lives, to have grand kids..." -- And then, she said - "that's probably not helping..." - to which I replied...as she knowingly chuckled..."Not really, Grandma."

.....AHHHH, its EXHAUSTING if you think about it that way (no offense, Grandma!). I realized, in the furious speed that my fingers were exercising at that very moment, that I just. needed. perspective. I began to look for hopeful scriptures that spoke about waiting - so I could at least adopt one and join with the other saintly women who had waited their whole lives, too, looking upward. You know what I found out? You know what the secret to their waiting was? His Truth. His presence. Daily bread provided by HIM. Man, I let it become so complicated. God wants to give us what we desire - I truly believe that. And for the things that we want that aren't in His plans, He gives us peace for if we seek it. Ahh, I have found such peace in calling him Papa this year. He really is my Papa. Papa, do you see me? Do you hear me? I'm doing my best to please you. I work for you. I get up for you. Papa, please cloak me with your patience and a restful heart. God, I just want to be what you want me to be. You know my needs. I am fighting impatience. I am fighting those anxious feelings that say I must...Oh God, be the seal on my heart that holds me so tightly, so securely, so assuredly. I want to get lost in your presence.

Something To Chew On...

"I wait for the LORD, my soul waits, and in his word I put my hope." ~Psalm 130:5
"But if we hope for what we do not yet have, we wait for it patiently." ~Romans 8:25
"Wait for the LORD; be strong and take heart and wait for the LORD." ~Psalm 27:14
"I say to myself, "The LORD is my portion; therefore I will wait for him." ~Lamentations 3:24
"Therefore you do not lack any spiritual gift as you eagerly wait for our Lord Jesus Christ to be revealed." ~1 Cor. 1:7
"Keep yourselves in God's love as you wait for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ to bring you to eternal life." ~Jude 1:21
"In the morning, O LORD, you hear my voice; in the morning I lay my requests before you and wait in expectation." ~Psalm 5:3

Psalm 106: 12-15

¹² "Then they believed his promises
and sang his praise.

¹³ But they soon forgot what he had done
and did not wait for his counsel.

¹⁴ In the desert they gave in to their craving;
in the wasteland they put God to the test.

¹⁵ So he gave them what they asked for,
but sent a wasting disease upon them."