I am struggling through a season of waiting at the moment. Normally, I would like to think that I am a pretty patient person. I had learnt very early on in my life that impatience doesn’t pay – it always seemed to get me into some kind of trouble. Yet, in this present time, I am finding the waiting a real struggle.

You see, my husband and I have been married for almost 22 years, and during that whole time, we have rented the different houses that we have lived in – never once owned it. The ironic thing though is we used to build large ‘dream home’ type houses for other people; we have owned vacant land and drawn up many plans for our houses that we wanted to build; but it never quite worked out. We have never owned a home of our own.

However, earlier this year, through some incredible miraculous moments and provision directly from God, we have finally been able to purchase a house of our own. Yay! …and I don’t mean just any old house, I mean a brand spanking new home that is spacious, large, beautiful and ultimately, the house of our dreams. The problem is that we have to wait another 6 months before we can actually move into it – and I am finding this waiting so very hard.

The problem is that I have a real unsettled feeling in the current house we are in and I can’t wait for that to disappear – but again, that will come in time and with the change of location. We are actually moving out of our current rental house four months before we can move into our own house. We will be staying at a local Bed-and-Breakfast cabin for four months, so that will be another time of transition and waiting – but it breaks up the monotony, and we (the family) seem to think it will be a fun little interlude.

Yet, in the waiting, I am discovering much. I am learning that I have an immense capacity to be patient – I have already waited for this dream, this promise, for a lifetime (22 years is no short period of time in the scheme of things), so what difference is another six months? Nowadays, time seems to fly by so quickly anyway, and the process of finding the home, planning and purchasing it, and then waiting for the settlement, went by so quickly, I barely had time to catch my breath.

I want to enjoy the process of the waiting. I don’t want to wish and hope the time away and miss all the glimpses of gold and God in the process. I know that in the waiting, God can do a mighty and powerful work in me. I know that in the waiting, He is preparing me, teaching me, guiding me, and helping me – if I am awake to His work in me, and if I let that work produce the good that it needs to. He can use this waiting for good and I can too.

As much as my hopes and plans seem to be on hold until we move in to our new home (I am constantly catching myself saying “when we get into the new house”, or “when we get into a house of our own”), I know that I can begin to live the life that I want to live already now. I can pack, I can sort, I can organise, I can plan, I can make lists, I can save, I can do all the things to prepare for moving and living in the new house – I just can’t be there yet.

This current waiting has also caused me to remember the agony of waiting for our children to arrive. How the pregnancies seemed to take so long and drag on (yet were so quick in hind-sight), and how the dream of the little child we would hold and be able to call our own seemed blissfully and dreadfully far away. It was a waiting process that again molded and shaped us. We couldn’t hurry it up. We had to wait the entire designated, God-ordained time. We could only plan, prepare and hope. And the result of that waiting, each time, was a beautiful gift. The waiting seemed to melt away in a single moment without another thought. Yet, it was because of the waiting that the result was so glorious, so precious, so wonderful.

So, if you too are in this time of waiting – a process of time that seems endless and continuous, then I want to encourage you. At the end of the waiting, there will be a glorious, wonderful, precious outcome, if you let God do His work in you while you travel through the waiting. Let Him guide you and mold you, let Him teach you and grow or develop in you what you will need for the next season. Let the quiet and hard work be done in you so that you can arise beautifully, fully-equipped and ready for what He has in store for you next.

We can let the waiting produce good fruit. I can let it be a good and wholesome time. I have been dreaming of what our lifestyle will look like when we move into the new house; I have been planning all the things we will do, the feasts we will have, the people we will invite over, the celebrations we will make, and yes, that will all have to wait to come to pass, but, I can plan, pray, and prepare now and so I will. In this time of waiting, I choose not to struggle through, but to let God do His shaping and making work in me to prepare me for the season I am about to walk into.

In this waiting, I will wait well!