It seems we’ve been waiting for so many things in our lives. The item at the top of our list has finally arrived.  Pookie and her hubby have just welcomed a new baby girl which means that Lil’ Snookie now has a baby sister!  Oh, the anticipation! 

From the minute Lil’ Snookie knew there was a tiny baby in Mama’s tummy, he declared that he would have a sister, she would look like him and that he would call her Fruity Pebbles.  Though his mommy and daddy might have preferred to wait and be surprised on the big day, his insistence that he would have a sister caused them to open the sealed envelope the doctor had given them just in case they had to explain to him that sometimes God thinks you need a brother. 

Well, sister it was!  At various times in the week following the big news, Big Brother would look up from whatever toy or activity he was engaged with, catch my eye and with a knowing smile, softly say, “I was right, Grandma.”

And then we waited.  At times the months seemed to fly by and at other times it seemed that Fruity Pebbles was taking her own sweet time.  Overall, it was a fun type of wait (except for Mama in those last few weeks).

Little did we know that Lil’ Snookie was in for a different type of wait and this time it would not be fun.  Though he knew and seemed to understand that Mama and Daddy would go to the hospital so the doctor could help bring Fruity Pebbles out into the world and he would be having a sleepover at our house, something just didn’t seem right about the whole thing in his little heart.  Though he visited every day, an extended hospital stay proved to be agonizing.  This type of waiting hurt.

Do we thrive in times of waiting?  Fruity Pebbles certainly did, as was proved by her robust size and appetite when she arrived.  And, by the way, she does look just like her brother.

I once heard the Bible teacher Joyce Meyer say that we may as well get used to waiting on God because we are going to spend the greater part of our lives doing it.  I have found this to be true, but I’m not sure it makes it any easier.

When people hear that my book series is coming out soon and that a screenplay for a series is being written based on it, many of them say something to the effect that I’m becoming an overnight success.  Overnight?  Hardly.  I have had to wait on myself to finish a rough draft, tediously gone through edits, waited for appointments and opportunities to meet with agents and publishers, waited for them to review my manuscripts, waited for replies, waited for contracts. Now I’m waiting again for the final edit and cover art to be completed while I work on another edit of the next book in the series. This last decade has hardly seemed overnight to me.

Through the years I’ve waited, as many of you have, for answers to prayers whether they’ve concerned health, relationships or finances. I can’t say that any of those waits have been fun. Waiting is not something you learn to do and become so proficient at that it ceases to be a disrupting factor in your life.  Waiting is something that you just do.  The only thing you learn is how to trust God and try not to get on other people’s nerves while you’re doing it.

Once the text message arrived that Mama and Daddy were on the way home (accompanied by a photo of Fruity Pebbles all fastened up in her car seat), Lil’ Snookie knew the time was near.  Soon he would be joined by the ones he loved most so that they could all go home and be a family together and there would be no more tears.  He took up his post at the window to watch for that familiar vehicle to pull into the driveway and waited with an extra dose of hope.

He left his post by the window a time or two out of sheer frustration and rolled around on the sofa for a bit while he asked me how many more minutes it would be.  I’d give my best estimate and he would return to his post and do the only thing he could – wait.  We are like that, aren’t we, when we sense that our hopes are on the verge of being fulfilled?

In the difficult waiting times, I lean on Scriptures like these –

• Isaiah 64:4: “Since ancient times no one has heard, no ear has perceived, no eye has seen any God besides you, who acts on behalf of those who wait for him.”
• Habakkuk 2:3: “For still the vision awaits its time; it hastens to the end—it will not lie. If it seems slow, wait for it; it will surely come; it will not delay.”
• Lamentations 3:25-26: “The Lord is good to those who wait for him, to the soul that seeks him. It is good that one should wait quietly for the salvation of the Lord.”

The last several months have offered Smuffy and me several instances in which we had no choice but to pray and wait and somehow make the choice to thrive in the waiting.  God has been faithful and He has seen us through.

There is no escaping the fact that there are more waiting times ahead.  Some come unexpectedly and some you can see coming a mile away.  I know full well that, short or long, there will be a wait once this screenplay is finished and studios begin to look at it.

Stress can be a necessary and good thing in our lives.  It can also be a killer.  Check out Part 1 and Part 2 of how to Fire Yourself and Re-hire Yourself by surrendering guilt so that the demands that you put on yourself and allow others to put on you can become more reasonable!

Don’t forget to share this with friends and family on your social media. Someone might be waiting for a bit of encouragement in their journey.

How about you?  Do you struggle through the long, hard waiting times?  Leave a comment and let me know what it is that sees you through and gives you hope.