Lessons In Waiting

Yesterday I had the joy of spending the day with my daughter, Whitney.  She was accompanying her refereeing husband to a Lacrosse game and it was close enough to me that I decided to drive over and spend her waiting hours with her.  It was a great day of mom and daughter shopping, having lunch, oh, and of course we watched the lacrosse game, too (well part of it!)!

On our way back to the school after our shopping excursion, I was dropping her off at the stadium where she would wait while Paul reffed one more game, and I would head back home.  The traffic in this little town was backed waaaay up and Whitney commented to me,

“Maybe you could find an alternate route so you could miss this traffic and not have to sit and wait.”

I opted to stay my course and it wasn’t that bad after all!  But her comment made me think about this post I was getting ready to write.  Don’t we all eagerly look for ways to divert waiting? 

At Chick-Fil-A we look for the shortest line.
We make doctor appointments at the times of day when the doctor will be less likely to be backed up.
We use the Scan and Go app at Sam’s club and the on-line pick-up at the grocery store.
We text so we don’t have to wait for someone to answer our call.
We slide into scheduled events right on time or shortly after so we don’t have to sit.
And yes, we take alternate routes so we don’t sit in traffic.

But when it comes to waiting for God to move in on a situation or end a trial, our hands are completely tied.  There is nothing to do but wait.

Such was the case in our Two-year wait for our grandson’s adoption. Our daughter and son-in-law did all they could to help the process go through by fulfilling their responsibilities, but we could not hurry the process in any way at all.  But praise the Lord, after two full years, the waiting is now over and those boys bear their parent’s name!  The judge made it official and we could not be happier!!

I sat down after the adoption day and wrote out the things the Lord has taught me while we waited and watched our grandsons go through the adoption process.  These were lessons I didn’t want to forget.  While they’re fresh on my heart, I want to share them with you, too.

1. My spiritual adoption made me forever God’s child. 
   1. I was weak and sickly.
   2. I was needy
   3. I was already connected to earthly things
   4. My spiritual adoption was costly
   5. There were witnesses – the angels in heaven!
   6. I’m secure forever as God’s child
   7. God pursued me in love
   8. There was a plan
   9. I now call God Abba Father
   10. I have all the rights and privileges of a full-grown son!
       So now…
2. We can trust a sovereign God with the desires He puts in our hearts.  God had put in our daughter’s heart the longing for a child, and she longed to adopt!  God didn’t give her one child…He gave her TWO!!
3. While waiting for God’s plan to unfold, faithfully and diligently do now what He has called you to do.  Alli learned this lesson and shared it with me.  While she was waiting, she said God prompted her heart to be a faithful wife and homemaker.  She got busy taking care of her husband and their home.  One day after feverishly deep cleaning her house, they got the call from the social worker about two boys that needed a home.  Weeks in the NICU with them, and becoming a mom of twin sons kept her so busy in the weeks to come, she had no time to think about deep cleaning!!  Her faithfulness while she waited truly paid off once God brought about His plan for their family!
4. God’s timing is perfect!  We know this in our head, but when we watch Him answer and provide and we turn around and look behind us at the path we’ve walked, we see that the timing of it all couldn’t have been better!  We see how amazingly it all worked out!
5. He is at work even when we cannot see the evidence of it. There were so many days that it seemed we were getting nowhere, but all along the way, God was opening the path and providing the best way possible for our whole family.
6. When we allow God to work, He gets the glory because we had nothing to do with it!  There is no way we could have worked all these details out, and we clearly see that the Lord did it all.
   On that Adoption Day, we stopped in that courtroom and my husband led in prayer, thanking God for all He had brought to pass.  We praise Him for His love, provision and care for us and those two precious boys that we love so much.

Now, I ask you, What are you waiting for right now?  What answer, what provision, what completion, what need is staring YOU in the face as the adoption did us?  Please read again these six points and remind yourself that if you have been adopted into God’s family, all these truths apply to you right now, too.  Why not stop right now and ask God to help you to trust Him to bring about what is necessary, and to increase your faith as you, too, learn these precious lessons while you’re waiting.

The adopted daughter of the King,