Still Waiting...

Well, I had hoped to come back with all the fabulous scripture our group came up with on waiting, however, I was the only group member there this morning, so, I will share what I alone found. (I didn't go to our evening group which had a better turn out, just in case you think I'm completely making up the fact that I lead an actual Bible study. Though that clearly isn't far from the truth.*ahem* lets move on.)

I will give you a little background into my last few weeks before I start what I have a feeling could be a lengthy post. Go ahead and get comfy. Or run now. :)
I haven't made this public knowledge other that to a few prayer partners and my Bible study- the one that exists, not the other one, but this week we were expecting to receive to foster placements into our home. It has been 15 months since this has happened and we were excited, nervous, and actually peaceful. We received the call when my husband was in China- of course- and therefore I didn't want to talk about it until I was really able to talk to him about it. Their hearing was set for this past Wednesday. I started making the necessary arrangements and purchasing of necesseties and trying to let school know without anyone else knowing. It is hard to tell people this will happen until it actually happens because working with DHS is just not a certain thing. So, the before I am preparing to share news with family and attempting to get ahold of the case worker. FINALLY, she returns my call. "Oh, well, J and O have already been placed in another home. Kids Net should have calle you" At that moment my breath left me and I fought back tears of hurt, frustration and anger. And then I had to go back and join my Coffee Break group- who knew none of this, and still doesn't. I did hold it together up until the moment I had to pick up some lunch for hubs and I at Quizno's. Chris Tomlin's song Sing, Sing, Sing, was on the radio in there and it took me down. I was angry, and I did not want to sing, sing, sing to God right then. Our family had been waiting, and waiting, and waiting. I am so very worn down and tired from waiting. I had come to a point of peace that our family may physically never grow, then the call comes and you gain hope again. Only to have that hope ripped away in an instant. Really, God? Was that very nice? That kinda hurt a lot. And ya hurt my baby girl a lot. She was looking forward to this, has been for years. She prays for them every single day to not miss their mama and dad so much and to keep them safe until they are out of their house. She prays with all of her heart. Really? She is tired of waiting too, God.

Enter in the Bible study topic of the moment- Waiting. I honestly checked out a bit on this one. I made no real effort to go to the evening group even though I knew there would be discussion a plenty and great scripture to back it up. I didn't want to hear it. Until the next morning. I finally sat down with God and said "okay, lets do this. Show me" And then I wished with all of my heart that I had been at Bible study the night before. Lesson learned.

Abraham and Sara, Jonathan and Elizabeth, Esther, Hannah, Moses and the Israelites.... those are the names laid out on paper before me. These people waited. They lost patience, they waited. And God delivered. And when He delivered, He did so in a way that was so much more than these mere mortals could ever have dreamed up. They knew what God promised, they asked for what they could imagine, but God has so much more mighty plans then our minds could ever imagine! Does it make the waiting easier? I don't think it does, unless you cling to Him with every single ounce of your being and don't take your eyes off of Him for a second.
I was sharing this with a friend of mine who lives in her own life of waiting that was recently very painful also, and her question to me was "But what did these people do while they waited? Why doesn't God show us that?"
We know we are called to wait- we know we are blessed in waiting, but HOW to do it? That remains the greatest question.

Psalm 130:5 I wait for the Lord, and my soul waits and in His word I put my hope.
Hope in Him, wait in Him, that's the best I can do right now.

*if you're family and wondering why you still didn't hear about the foster plan, its really hard to bring it up after the fact and say we were going to but now we're not.

**After I wrote this, I headed to school to have lunch with my son. I was looking at his pictures hanging on the walls and they had verses on prayer. Jackson's verse? Psalm 66:20 Praise be to God, who has not rejected my prayer or withheld his love from me! This is where MY hope lies and this is how I will wait. Amen.

God is good! All the time!

Today's Topic:Waiting

I feel like a broken record. I look back and see that I have had plenty of posts on WAITING and here I am again.

Last week you all were so very passionate about the Bible Study topic I shared and let me tell you, us study leaders get pretty excited to see such passion surrounding the Word. So, if you all will continue to participate, we will continue to ask.  Let me first introduce you to our study set up. This year when talking about a new plan we discussed the typical studies- Joyce Meyer, Beth Moore, Dave Ramsey, Ray VanderLaan, and more. But. We always listen to these AMAZING leaders- please don't get me wrong, we have only the utmost of respect for these awesome speakers/writers- however, we just take what they say and go "okay, well this is what so and so says, so this is what I should do". But God doesn't call us to just take someone's word for it. He wants us to write the Word upon our own hearts. And the only way to do that is by searching and pulling it all apart for yourself. Yes, guides and commentaries are great tools, and we encourage those as well.  However, those are man written, we want to rely on the God written Word.

So, this year, we asked something a little different, a little bit scary, and entered into unknown terrritory of our ladies Bible study group. Each meeting we brainstorm to come up with a topic, and then in two weeks we use all resources available to us to search the Word of God. To find all that He has to say on those topics. To see it for our own eyes, read it in context, and get the full picture. Do we always agree with each other's interpretations? No. But it prompts discussion, it makes us all think, and we are all in it together.

Make sense? So, this weeks topic is Waiting on God.  I'm not going to lie, my first response was "crap" when I knew that's what we decided on. But I know that God wants me to GET IT. So, I am working on it.

Instead of giving you what I've found just yet, I want to hear from YOU! You are all so brilliant and genuine and real, that I want your thoughts. (yes, this post is me NOT talking- why do you ask... *ahem*)

Waiting on God- Are we simply called to wait? Is God calling us to act while we wait?

Do you have a particular issue you are waiting to hear God’s answer to? Is His answer wait? Is the answer No? How do you wait on God through the tough times. What scripture encourages you to wait on Him and His timing?

So, share your thoughts... I'd LOVE to hear! And if some of you answer questions with questions, that's great too! (you know who you are...) We want questions, we want to think, we want to be challenged!

Okay, I promise that's all. I do want to leave you a link to Michelle's blog from last week- she spoke of waiting in a different way. Check that out if you'd like!

Now, share your wisdom dear readers!!!