Joy in waiting

I check my phone one more time.  Still nothing.  It has only been five minutes since I last pushed the envelope button on my screen.  I wait and watch the phone upload and hope that I see a new email come across the screen, praying it isn't another piece of junk mail from Kohl's telling me I have 30% off! Don't get me wrong, I do love those emails but my wallet does not!  Still nothing.  I sigh as my head becomes twice as heavy and it hangs.  I continue to do this through out the day, hoping today is the day we get an email saying our home study is done!  As we wait for one more signature my mind is consumed and it affects my mood.  My day is filled with disappointment instead of joy, sadness instead of happiness, and anger instead of love.  Is this what God wanted when he put us in this waiting period?   Does God want us to focus on the have-nots,  or the blessings in what we already have?  Life is full of waiting.  Waiting for that promotion, waiting to graduate, waiting to get married, waiting for the next paycheck, waiting to move or waiting to have a child.  It's not about the wait, its about what we do in the midst of waiting.

I can't help but think of Rebekah as I sit here and think about my own life and all that I am waiting for. She was married to Isaac and she was unable to have kids for twenty years.  TWENTY YEARS?!?  Yes, I guess I did read that correctly.  Can you imagine?  Oh her heart.  During this time men often took their handmaids or a second wife.  But Isaac stayed faithful during this time and instead of choosing another woman he prayed for his wife:

"Isaac prayed to the Lord on behalf of his wife, because she was barren.  The Lord answered his prayer, and his wife Rebekah became pregnant. " Genesis 25: 21

The Lord not only answered their prayer, He blessed them with two babies.  These twins represented the two nations and a fulfillment to God's promise (Genisis 15).  Isaac and Rebekah had to wait twenty years for God's perfect plan to be played out.  I don't know how they handled the waiting period.  I am sure Rebekah cried out to God often, if not daily to answer her prayers. I don't know how her heart was during that time, but I do know what she revealed to me in the midst of her waiting.

God has a perfect plan and promise designed for your life.  He wants us to cry out to Him and continue to pray for the desires of our heart and wait expectantly (1John 5:14).  He wants us to stay close to Him and keep those desires close to your heart.  This is what He doesn't want us to do.  He doesn't want us to become consumed with what we don't have yet.  He doesn't want us to become bitter, sad, depressed or disappoint.  He doesn't want us to compare to what others have because he has a perfect plan made out for them and them only, just as He does with you.  What if Rebekah spent twenty years complaining and consumed with waiting?  What a waste!

This is what I know God is telling me.  Enjoy the wait.  It could be a day or twenty years, in that time find the joy in all that God has blessed me with today.  What did I find joy in today?  Car rides filled with worship songs and endless questions by my four year old.  Catching up with a dear friend.  Bike rides with family. Swinging. A loving, and quite attractive, husband!  Giving my daughter a bath and sitting back watching her dump bucket after bucket of water on her head.  Going to Starbucks twice in one day, yes I'm an addict! And a sugar cookie to end my day.  It started off as a dessert pizza with amazing fruit & cream cheese frosting on top.  Don't tell anyone but I picked off all the fruit and just ate the cookie with frosting! Perfect.

What if we focused on all the joys in life and lived as if we had 20 years to wait?  If I knew I had years before I was to get another baby in my arms, I would enjoy the years leading up to that time to the fullest.  God loves us and loves to bless us.  If you know God has promised you something, have faith in that and wait joyfully for his promise to become fulfilled!