Dear Friend Still Waiting,
Waiting is the worst and praying for patience feels like a life-ruiner. Girl, I feel you.
In my tribe-my inner circle of trusted friends and loved ones-there are many who are waiting.
Some are waiting for a spouse, others pray to have children, many pray for adoption approvals, job opportunities, or house closings. But we are all waiting.
I remember waiting, praying, crying, venting, and crying some more when I was waiting (quite impatiently) for a husband. Break-ups were hard and maintaining hope was harder. Sister, if you’ve never graduated from a bible college without a husband, you don’t know the pressure. The struggle ran deep.
The feeling of standing alone in a crowded room was paralyzingly, heart-numbingly real to me. I attended singles groups at church and bible studies to pray through my impatience but that man I was hoping for couldn’t have gotten there soon enough. The people offering advice were unknowingly throwing salt in my wound.
Once married, I prayed for kids of my own. In that experience of pregnancy and early motherhood, my eyes were opened and tear-filled at my incredibly faithful friends who struggled with infertility and child loss. Their pain was no less real than my joy. It seemed impossible for the two worlds to coexist, but yet they did. And they were beautiful.
Yet still I have friends who are waiting for verdicts, for diagnosis, for custody hearings, for jobs to come through or fall through. This season of waiting is painful and hard. It is messy and maddening.
But, dear friend, you are not alone.
You are not unloved because you feel impatient or frustrated. You are prayed for and uplifted. You are fervently loved and you are one who is joined up and covered in prayer for your waiting, for your hope, for your healing, for your answer. It doesn’t make this season move faster or the journey less rocky, but it may soothe your heart to know that we link arms with you on this road of waiting.
We do not push you out because you are single. We do not leave you out because you don’t have children of your own. We do not think of you less fondly because you are divorced or suffering job loss.
We love you harder. We want to see you more often. We want you to sit at our tables, share in laughter, and hug you tighter.
Please include us in your journey. We’ve been through it-or we haven’t. But we love you just the same. Waiting can be a life-ruiner…if you let it. So, fellow-warrior, don’t go it alone.
