Waiting Well

I wait with longing for the Lord, my soul waits for his word. Psalm 130:5​

Doesn’t is seem like we’re always waiting for something?  I was thinking about that as I was caught in a traffic slow down the other day.  I have a beautiful niece waiting to have a baby, I have a room full of middle lovelies waiting for the end of the school year, I have a daughter waiting to head off on a summer adventure in Kansas to be a counselor at a Catholic Girls Camp.  We wait for food, parties, clothes from the dryer and for the end of the week.  I suppose it’s all a natural thing but it took over my thoughts that afternoon.

Today was the last day of  school for local seniors and my newsfeed was full of photos of lovely young people I’ve know  since they were in first grade.  I’m old enough to remember when their mammas were pregnant with them and as I looked at a couple of them on FaceBook I can remember how awaited their arrival was and now their moms and dads wonder where the last 18 years went.  Funny how that happens isn't it!  You blink and your pregnant belly is holding a diploma, a wedding bouquet or a baby of their own.  We tend to look at the beginning and swoop to the current day and forget how much waiting there has been in-between.  Waiting in the dentist office, the gym, the car pool line and outside the bathroom door.  I think we actually spend more time waiting than we spend doing.

I know it’s a random thing to write about today but it has been a brilliant reminder that I should pay attention to my waiting.  It caused me to wonder how I spend all those waiting minutes.  Do I practice patience or look for a “Father pleasing” thing to do while I wait?  If waiting is a given in our society, I’ve come to the conclusion that I need to be better at it.  I need to look for people to pray for, visit with and serve or show kindness to.  As I stood in the check out line at the grocery store at dinner time last night I was noticing that the cashier was not long on speed.  I needed to get home and get supper on the table and I was right on the edge of getting impatient when I noticed my beautiful daughter step around me and visit with the shopper behind us.  She was in a wheel chair and Shannon went back to visit with her unload all of her groceries onto the conveyor belt.  They visited about everything from the ladies granddaughters to the Flaming Hot Cheetos she was purchasing.  I think it’s pretty fair to say I got a lesson on the kind of waiter I should be.  I also realized that fabulous use of wait time didn’t interfere with me getting supper on the table at all, so stepping outside of my own little waiting bubble to serve someone else turned that wasted time into valuable minutes.

So what are you waiting for and how are you waiting?  Those are the big questions for the day.  The world will whiz by in a blink whether we spend ten more minutes in line or in traffic.  Our babies and grand babies are going to grow so fast we won’t remember colic, potty training,homework, teenage driving or any of the dozen other things that make us feel overwhelmed and frustrated.  I suppose when we boil it down to the bottom of the pot, our tiny time on earth is all about waiting for the true life…in heaven, so again I ask myself and I ask you; how are we waiting?

A Seed To Plant: Think of five things you can  do the next time you have to wait for something.  Try at least one out in the next few days.

Blessings on your day!