Patience is NOT My Virtue

Ladies, I have a confession: I am not good at waiting. I take charge and get things done. I see a need, I fill the need, if its in my skill set. These are great attributes to have! Except when it comes to men. Men don't want to be pursued, they want to be the pursuers, so we must learn to wait for them.

Waiting for God's perfect timing, and waiting for a man to pursue me are Very challenging for me. When I see a man I want, I want him now. And I want him to realize that he wants me, too - NOW!! But that's not how God's timing is.

I have been praying for God to work in His perfect time to prepare me for the right place and the right place for me, as I contemplate a career move. I also pray a similar prayer about meeting and marrying the right man. And a couple of times I thought I'd found the right guy, only God was on a different path from me and that relationship didn't work out as I had planned.

Sometimes I need to step back and remind myself that God had always provided at just the right time in the past, and He will continue to do so for me in the present and future. God is never early and never late. He is always right on time. In all things.

...including relationships.

Oh Lord Hear My Prayer

Lord, I need you. My head hurts. My heart and mind are restless. It's hard to be patient. I need You. I need Your help. Amen.

Patience

Patience: It may be a virtue, but it certainly isn't feeling like one of my strengths lately.

He was supposed to come visit the weekend of May 8th, but due to a business emergency he had to make a trip out of town. The trip was postponed to the following weekend, but the business crisis continued and kept him away. Same story the following weekend. I kept hoping that his birthday weekend, Memorial weekend, would finally be the weekend he would be able to visit. But no, still no visit.

Lord, I'm trying to be patient, but this is really hard. When will we finally be together again?

I'm still waiting. The hardest part of this is that the work situation has also kept him working long days and weekends, so we hardly talk. The few messages I have assure me of his love and that he misses me.

At first I was in despair (see previous post: Stormy Week). Then I started to find hope as I fixed my eyes on Christ and serving, supporting, and loving him through this. I found strength in talking to girlfriends who helped distract me from my situation and godly women advising me, and even a few visits with my pastor (see previous posts: Peace and Fear Not!).

Still, doubt slips in on occasion. The world has a different view of relationship and love. To the world love is a feeling, so if the feelings aren't strong then there must not be love and it's time to move on. But God tells me that love is more than that. Love is patient (1 Corinthians 13:4)

Fear tells me to let go of him, he's not communicating much. It says "he loves you, but does he really mean it if he's too busy to let you know he's ok or he misses you"?

Patience says to trust that God has a plan and that God is working in this situation to bring me closer to Him. Patience says that God is using this to strengthen me and change me.

Patience.... is tough. But I'd rather be a fool for holding on even if it turns out that it's over than be a fool for letting go and missing out on something great, because you never know, I might be surprised. It might just turn out that patience brings me my heart's desire. So I'm going to keep hoping, no trusting, that when he says he loves me he absolutely means it. And I'm going to keep hoping that he's so deep into his work waffle, that what he  needs most is space and support, and when he comes out of his work waffle he'll be ready to re-engage with me (see "Men are Like Waffles, Women are Like Spaghetti"). And, I'm going to keep blogging to help me process, because that's was spaghetti women do- we connect with others!