While You're Waiting: Learn to Love

(Image Credit: Jomphong)

*Recently I was thinking about all I would want my daughters to know before they get married.  Instead of wishing the days away until they walk down the aisle, how would I encourage them to live?  Living in the joy of who God created.  The practicalities and the dreaming.  What would I want to encourage... While they're waiting?  These are some of those thoughts.

I didn't always wait so patiently.  I've never been a patient person and to compound matters, I'm the most Type A person you'll ever meet.  I had a time line, a plan, a clearly laid out path for my life.  It included knowing my husband through grade school and high school, going to college together, and marrying young.  And in the waiting, patience was not my strong suit.

One of the ways the Lord worked in my impatience was drawing me closer to Him.  My days were free from the responsibilities that would come later.  Looking back, I was given time to just be, just be with Him.  My time was open: prayers with roommates in the morning, a moment to praise between classes, late night bible studies.  And although I didn't value it enough, I look back now and see how that time set the tone for  my learning to love, to fall in love with the Creator.

To this day, when the mornings are hectic and someone needs their shoes tied, I can go back in my mind.  Back to the scriptures that are hidden in my heart.  Back to the silent prayers for peace.  Back to the arms of my Father that are well known.  It's this foundation of faith from which my husband and I can grow together and challenge each other.  It's this foundation of faith from which I can draw when I'm with my kids.  And although I'll never stop learning, the things I learned in my single years are invaluable and remind me how to love.  And how I am loved.

When the world seems upside down and I'm struggling to keep my head above water, I remember the times I was alone with the Lord.  And I can know that He is the most steady and faithful person in my life.  Just as He was when I first learned to fall in love with Him.  When I took the time to open my heart and embrace truth, I knew His love.

While You're Waiting, learn to love the Lord.  Spend time in His presence.  Lean into His unfailing love for you.  Learn to rely on Him.  Seek to embrace the intimacy that you can only know with the Father.

How will you learn to love in your time of waiting?

*Linked to Weekend Bloggy Reading