Patience is a virtue.

Timing is so important! If you are going to be successful in dance, you must be able to respond to rhythm and timing. It's the same in the Spirit. People who don't understand God's timing can become spiritually spastic, trying to make the right things happen at the wrong time. They don't get His rhythm - and everyone can tell they are out of step. They birth things prematurely, threatening the very lives of their God-given dreams.       -T. D. Jakes

One of the most difficult lessons I've had to learn in life so far has been waiting. Waiting for answers, waiting for direction, waiting for love, waiting for healing, waiting for coffee... :) But seriously, in our insanely fast paced culture, waiting stinks! My lesson for today was for sure a big fat smack in the face reminder from my eternally patient heavenly Father about His timing. 

Before christmas break I had difficult decisions with my job and questions of whether or not I should stay there during Jason's deployment. I prayed and prayed for guidance, but thinking back, I really only prayed looking for my answer and not waiting for His answer. I remember back when I was a little girl sitting in church, squirming around on the pugh, hearing our preacher say that God can answer your prayers with a yes, or a no, but the most difficult answer is wait. 

Why in the world is it SO difficult for me to trust that God can take care of such a minute thing like my job? But no I spiraled into a crazy emotional tornado ignoring God's promise that He was in control the whole time. Today He showed me, with a little reminder from my dear mother, that I wasted buckets of tears and countless hours worrying about my job. 

Like the quote above that I recently found, which I instantly fell in love with, timing is so important. God knew the entire time that everything would work out perfectly. He knew the ins and outs of this deployment, he knew what the month of January held for us, before we could even utter our first prayer about the situation. Why must I be so impatient all the time when I've entrusted my life to God? 

Leave it to me to be the clumsy dancer who fumbles around and messes up the routine. Thankfully I am assured over and over that our Father knows this, He knows us and He know's how clumsy we are when it comes to dancing in this great dance we call life. 

As I change gears and share with you from my devotional, and of course continuing on the "wrong day" bible study, January 17 is pretty spot on for today as well. Funny how God does that! 

"Come to ME with a thankful heart, so that you can enjoy My Presence. This is the day that I have made. I want you to rejoice today, refusing to worry about tomorrow. Search for all that I have prepared for you, anticipating abundant blessings and accepting difficulties as they come."

Search for and anticipate blessings. That sounds good to me! Why do we waste so much time worrying about silly things like missing a FaceTime chat with my husband when I can trust that God has a reason even for the silliest details of life. 

So instead of curling up into a ball with my cookie dough ice cream. I choose to get up, finish my work out (LITERALLY Thank you Mrs. Laura Gafken!!) and keep pressing on with life, because we cannot let the worry of the unknown keep us from living an abundantly blessed life today. All it takes is faith.... and a little bit of patience! 

*hugs*

Rebekah