Betsy Childs Howard wrote "Seasons of Waiting: Walking by faith when dreams are delayed", and she wrote it beautifully! In all my years of ministry and in the hundreds (maybe thousands?!) of conversations I have had with other women over those years, there is a theme that has almost always emerged as we talk. All of us are waiting for something. All of us are praying for something to end or something to start. Be it big or small, there is a level of waiting that fills every heart. Sometimes waiting brings with it a level of excited expectation as we see the thing longed for approaching. But, many times, waiting can be painful. It can feel like a cloud that follows us around or a burden that never quite seems to leave our shoulders.
I have often cried out to the Lord in seasons of waiting, "Please, help me learn what I need to learn, Lord, so the wait can be over." Sounds like a Biblical prayer, right?
I was only a few pages deep into "Seasons of Waiting" when I was confronted in regards to that very prayer! Betsy says, "You may have picked up this book in the hope that it will help you learn your lesson (and thereby bring your waiting to an end). My hope is that it will help you learn to love waiting, to want to wait well, and to see that God has a beautiful kingdom purpose that he is bringing about through (not in spite of) your waiting."
I couldn't put the book down after that. I wanted to learn how to love waiting, to wait well, and to see God's story in the midst of my waiting so that I could give Him glory, even through the painful waits. As I read, I found myself experiencing a wide range of emotions as she dealt with very real topics (singleness, bareness, sickness, unsettledness, prodigal children/spouse). I often found myself in tears over the pain that waiting can bring (in my life and in the lives of others)...and yet, over and over, I couldn't help but pause and give glory to our faithful God as my heart was filled with hope and JOY over the gift that waiting can be and the testimony it can be to a watching world as we proclaim Christ and His forever promises in the midst of the temporal and as we fix our eyes not on what is seen but what is unseen (2 Cor. 4:18).
I'm not sure I can use strong enough words to encourage you to BUY THIS BOOK and then READ IT! Outside of your time in God's Word, it just might be some of your sweetest reading this summer!
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