Thursday, January 19, 2006

In the meantime

Writing a post about waiting has been in my mind for several days now. Funny that I waited a while to write it, but I wanted things to sink in a bit more. And then I got my 'Encouragement For Today' emails, and they were parts 1 and 2 and were titled "Wait Management." Wow.

Many have spoken on the topic of waiting, and the fact that our society has geared us not to wait for anything -- and if we do, it's viewed as a bad thing. Fast food, high-speed internet, speed dating, text-messaging...and the list goes on. Granted, technology has done some amazing things, but I still wonder sometimes how good these things are, don't you?

The main reason I began thinking about waiting is simple: I'm 22 weeks pregnant. Generally, a pregnancy is about 36-40 weeks long. Anyone wonder where I'm going with this? Do you think that God really needs any kind of time to put a human together? I mean, after all, Adam and Eve were created in a day -- more like a moment -- and I'm sure there were no glitches in either of them. So why did God choose nine months? I don't know. All I know is that he had a reason for choosing nine months rather than three or twelve. And I believe that there is a lot about the waiting in all of it that is very important.

Here are some Bible verses (NIV) about waiting:

"If a man dies, will he live again? All the days of my hard service I will wait for my renewal to come." ~ Job 14:14

"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

"Wait for the LORD; be strong and take heart and wait for the LORD." ~ Psalm 27:14

"We wait in hope for the LORD; he is our help and our shield." ~ Psalm 33:20

"Be still before the LORD and wait patiently for him; do not fret when men succeed in their ways, when they carry out their wicked schemes." ~ Psalm 37:7

"I wait for you, O LORD; you will answer, O Lord my God." ~ Psalm 38:15

"I waited patiently for the LORD; he turned to me and heard my cry." ~ Psalm 40:1

"I wait for the LORD, my soul waits, and in his word I put my hope." ~ Psalm 130:5

"Yes, LORD, walking in the way of your laws, we wait for you; your name and renown are the desire of our hearts." ~ Isaiah 26:8

"Yet the LORD longs to be gracious to you; he rises to show you compassion. For the LORD is a God of justice. Blessed are all who wait for him!" ~ Psalm 30:18

"But you must return to your God; maintain love and justice, and wait for your God always." ~Hosea 12:6

"But as for me, I watch in hope for the LORD, I wait for God my Savior; my God will hear me." ~ Micah 7:7

"But if we hope for what we do not yet have, we wait for it patiently." ~ Romans 8:25

"It teaches us to say "No" to ungodliness and worldly passions, and to live self-controlled, upright and godly lives in this present age, while we wait for the blessed hope — the glorious appearing of our great God and Savior, Jesus Christ..." ~ Titus 2:12-13

"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

There were many, many more verses that I did not include here. But something tells me that God is trying to tell us something about waiting...that it can be a good thing, a very important thing. How different does that look from our society today? Isn't it a valuable tool that mothers can give their children when they teach them to wait, rather than giving them anything and everything right now? I think so.

I have a very hard time waiting for things, things that I deem 'important,' when really they are just important to me. Two nights ago, I had to get up to go to the bathroom (big surprise!). When I got back to bed, Miles started moving around, I think he had the hiccups...but in that moment I wanted so badly to hold him in my arms. I didn't want to wait another four months for this little boy, I wanted to hold him NOW! But God teaches us so much in the waiting. As much as I dislike waiting for things -- almost all of the time -- I can look back and see how much I have gained, or grown, or learned from that time of waiting.

Thank you, Lord, for making me wait for your precious gifts!

4 comments:

Jolene said...

I know exactly what you mean, Tracey... WAIT till you go through the 8th and 9th month... LOL. It is very tough. :D

tracey said...

Oh, thanks Jolene! Tough, huh? Well, I say bring it on! =)

Jolene said...

The waiting seemed ENDLESS and EVERDAY I wanted to just go into labour and deliver Caleb immediately!!

Sarah said...

Yeah Tracey, God will teach you A LOT about waiting that last month. Especially if you go overdue. The last 8 days for me (after we hit my EDD and she still showed no signs of coming out), seemed like a whole month. Honestly, I cried every day.

You have such a good attitude and outlook about this... thanks for sharing!

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