"Waiting Well"

 What is "waiting well" and is there such a thing? 

Have you ever felt like you were expected to wait well for something? Not even just something as huge as waiting to have a child. Waiting for anything really.... a new job, an interview, an important phone call, a text back from someone, a medical diagnosis, confirmation on plans, waiting in line at the store, waiting in traffic when you are trying to get somewhere. What does it mean to "wait well"?

Did you know that in the Bible, the idea of waiting is mentioned about 116 times? There are at least 15 verses that talk about "waiting on the Lord". 

Some verses that seem to really bring it all back into perspective are.... 

" The Lord is good to those who wait for him, to the soul that seeks him." Lamentations 3:25

" Therefore the Lord waits to be gracious to you, and therefore he exalts himself to show mercy to you. For the Lord is a God of justice; blessed are all those who wait for him." Isaiah 30:18 

I think the type of waiting that is being talked about here can apply in many different aspects of my life. Whether I am thinking about waiting for Jesus to return, or I am waiting, praying and seeking Him about something in my life, or whether I am trying to make a decision. In this case of course, I am speaking about the one thing that I have been wanting for almost 7 years now. God has taught me a lot of really hard lessons in the waiting game. 

When I speak about "waiting well", maybe that is how you feel you should seem to others around you. Sometimes I feel like I need to appear like I am doing just fine and that I am super confident knowing that God has it all taken care of (which by the way I totally know that He does!). But sometimes, there are days that are really hard. Days where I am taking time to talk to God and just be real with Him. Like, this waiting that You are putting me through, really sucks. Why aren't you making the others around me wait this long? Did I do something to upset you? What are you trying to teach me? Don't you think I have been through enough of this waiting and praying and hoping for a baby? Why can't things just be easier for me? I can't think of a scenario where I am going through my day, someone asks me about my adoption or how it's going and I look at them and just point blank tell them REALLY how I am doing through it all. A lot of the time I am thinking to myself, I need to appear that I am waiting well. "Oh, it's going good! We are just waiting to be matched now! We are so excited for it all to happen! Can't wait to get our baby!" That's an answer I know everyone is comfortable hearing. Especially to those who already have children. In all transparency, I feel sometimes it is super easy for someone to very flippantly say, "Oh don't worry it'll happen soon I am sure of it! God's got it!" Like, thanks for that. I am sure it's always meant well. I actually had someone once ask if I had children, and when I said, “not at the moment, however we are in the process of adopting!” I will never forget their response back. “Oh okay, but don’t you want to have your own children?” 

Waiting well is hard. However, I have quickly come to realize, God isn’t asking me to “wait well”… He is asking me to rely on Him and His strength to get through even the darkest times of my life. I know for a fact, I don’t have the strength to deal with this journey without Him. I can’t do anything without Him, including simply taking a single breath. So, I trust Him with this journey. He isn’t asking me to be strong enough to handle this or to wait well by myself. But when I make Him the center focus, my days aren’t filled with that dark, deep pit of despair feeling that comes with infertility. Instead, when I focus on His faithfulness, mercy, and love, it suddenly becomes less about what I don’t have and all that I do have because of what He has given me. God has my future mapped out. I don’t know what it looks like, but while I wait…. I can “wait well” with Him as my center focus. He makes me strong. 

Infertility With a Purpose! 

In Christ,

Sarah