Waiting in Hope

Yesterday I read a devotional by Philip Yancey in "Our Daily Bread" about Patience that I just had to share.  One part in particular stood out to me, "God, who is timeless, requires of us a mature faith that may involve delays that seem like trials.  Patience is one sign of that maturity, a quality that can develop only through the passing of time."   Good stuff.  We can only learn to be patient by being patient.

I am realizing we are definitely in a waiting season of life.  Right now we are waiting to see what happens with John's dad's cancer.  We are waiting to begin the transition of John becoming a full time student and me a full time employee.  Then we will be waiting for John to finish school.  We are waiting for our children to grow up.  And I suppose for the past several years we have been waiting for God to tell us how to get out of this financial instability.  This list could go on and on.

"I wait for the Lord, my soul waits, and in His Word I do hope." Ps 130:5  This has me thinking about the word "hope".  I blogged about the word a couple years ago and the lessons I learned about what it meant for me going through infertility but I never put it together with my waiting.  As we are waiting we can believe that God is working for us, preparing us, has a plan for us.

So as we begin to transition into our new stage of life that can only be described as temporary, a place of waiting, I will have hope knowing that God has led us here and will lead us through.

A Hope Filled Year

Happy New Year! I love a new year. Another of many opportunities throughout the year for a fresh start, a time to take stock of what you have done and what you are going to do. We all heard alot about "change" in 2009 (and 2008) but what I have heard a couple times in the media about 2010 is the word, "hope". I like that. A year of hope, where we dream our dreams and believe they are possible. We have hope that this year will be better than next year.

Of course the word "hope" has meaning to me because many years ago I felt hopeless when it came to thinking I would ever have a second child. Then one Sunday morning I was in church singing, "I put my hope in your holy word." As I asked God to help me understand what that was and to revive in me the hope I could get pregnant, He helped me understand that I was putting my hope in the wrong thing. We can't put our hope in people, things, family, politics, money, a baby, etc. Our hope can only come from God. My hope wasn't to be that I would get pregnant, rather it was that no matter what happened God would be there holding me, caring for me and directing me. My hope came from knowing and believing that whatever plan He had for me was the best plan for my life. And now having that second child I prayed for in a way I never would have planned myself I can assure you it is true, God's plans are best. And so as I make plans for a hope filled year I place them at God's feet knowing that ultimately he is in control and my joy will come from following Him.