In the waiting…God is working!!! Has anyone else ever had to wait for something they really wanted, and it seemed to take forever? Maybe it was in the supermarket line when you just wanted to get home! How about after school when your child seems to take forever to get out of the building? What about when you just want a prayer answered? Waiting is not something I am good at, how about you?
From the time I was little I remember confessing my sin of impatience…spoiler alert, I still confess this sin. The mantra I heard from my parents, especially my mom was, “patience is a virtue!” I pray for this virtue daily, and guess what? God gives me ceaseless opportunities to grow in patience, and I fail daily! My inability to be patient is something that truly drives me crazy about myself!
As I reflect on the virtue of patience, I realize just how impatient I have been in the past, how much I have changed recently, and where I hope to be in the future.
I remember one of the things that I have been most impatient about was my desire to be married. From the time I was 18, I wanted so badly to find the perfect person to complete me. (Heck, I dreamed of it from the time that I was 8!) I watched all my college roommates get married, begin families, and here I was, ALONE! 22 came and went, 23, 24, 25…I prayed and prayed. I shed so many tears. Then at 26 the love of my life entered my life, without any warning. He was perfect! So perfect that it only took four months to figure out we were meant to be together forever. God was working…in my waiting. He was preparing me for the perfect person meant to complete me.
Fast forward about eight years and the love of my life and I knew we were called to expand our family, but my body could not sustain a pregnancy. I lost two babies in the matter of three months and I knew that I just could not do this anymore! I was impatient with knowing that God called us to expand our family, but my body could not sustain it! Why did he put this desire in my heart, if he would not allow me to fulfill it. We had three biological children and Dan and I were always open to fostering and adoption, but we did not know this was the time to do it…but it was. God was working…in my waiting. He was preparing me to be ready to welcome our sweet son from China into our family.
Today we have been called to practice patience as a family once again. As I have written about before, we are awaiting the invitation to travel to get our son from China. We have no idea when this invitation will be granted, but we believe that in our waiting…God is working. Though it may not have been God’s intention for us to still not have our son we believe that God will make good come from our suffering and sacrifice.
The next time you start to feel impatient in your life, I challenge you to remember, that in the waiting…God is working. Even if your child is taking FOREVER to get out of school, remember, maybe they go slowly to make you holy!!!
