I am so happy to have my friend, Kasia Allen, guest writing here today.  I had the privilege of getting to know her when she was a young teenager in high school when I first started going to my church.  She has grown up, gone to college and moved on to the big city but she’s still in my heart.  She is also still active in her faith.  What an encouragement it is to know a young woman still walking with her Lord through high school, college and beyond.

I’ve always struggled with waiting.  From the coffee being made in the morning to waiting for the right husband and the ability to have children.  Even now I struggle greatly with some waiting issues.  As I learn more and more that waiting will be a lifelong experience, I also learn more and more how to not waste the waiting. Kasia has learned at a young age to be active while waiting.  What a difference actively waiting has on our lives, the people around us and on our disposition before the Lord.  Be encouraged today as Kasia points us toward what you can do, what you should not do and, most importantly, what the Lord does do in our waiting…

When it’s not important, I like to wait in line. It’s actually quite nice. You aren’t responsible yet for that purchase (is the dress really worth this much? should I buy this much brown licorice? what if I get tired of this piece of furniture?) but I’ve already done the work of choosing it so I accomplished that part of the task. Then I get to just wait in line. I can text or talk to a friend, read, pray, think, so many things.

When it is important, my perspective changes. Instead of being grateful for the blessings and circumstances I have and content with what is out of my control, it’s easy to feel so many other emotions and thoughts.

There can be a hopelessness in waiting: wondering if it will ever happen; if that person will ever change. Hopelessness can lead to anger, melancholy, listlessness. Jealousy that someone else doesn’t have to wait. There can be also fear in waiting: knowing what will happen but knowing it won’t yet. Anger that it has to happen but that you can’t do anything now. Melancholy over not being able to stop it.

There are more ways that waiting is hard. More specific ways that it can be difficult. We have to wait in so many various ways: relationally, spiritually, emotionally, biologically, etc.

But I’ve wondered, if it is foreordained that I wait in this particular circumstance, then what do I do now?

Psalm 37
English Standard Version (ESV)

He Will Not Forsake His Saints
Of David.

David speaks of what to do, of how to think of God because He is God and how to do so when things are hard. He instructs us to trust, delight, and commit ourselves to the Lord.

There are positive actions and behaviors we can act on.

3 Trust in the Lord, and do good;
    dwell in the land and befriend faithfulness.
4 Delight yourself in the Lord,
    and he will give you the desires of your heart.
5 Commit your way to the Lord;
    trust in him, and he will act.

David then commands us to wait upon the Lord with patience, not to fret, and to restrain from evil. We restrain from the sin that can be tempting when things are difficult–we abstain and refrain.

7 Be still before the Lord and wait patiently for him;
    fret not yourself over the one who prospers in his way,
    over the man who carries out evil devices!
8 Refrain from anger, and forsake wrath!
    Fret not yourself; it tends only to evil.

But we are not left without encouragement. Our Father foreordained all things to pass.                   He protects us, preserves us, and takes care of our lives–here and throughout eternity.

23 The steps of a man are established by the Lord,
    when he delights in his way;
    so shall you dwell forever.

28 For the Lord loves justice;
    he will not forsake his saints.
They are preserved forever,
    but the children of the wicked shall be cut off.
29 The righteous shall inherit the land
    and dwell upon it forever.  

While waiting can range from being an annoyance to so emotionally painful that it is also physically so, we do have instructions and holy ways we can can wait. We have a kind, loving, and powerful God who knows that we will wait and knows the full complexity and pain it may cause us. While we wait and live out our lives in prayer with with love for others–while we wait–we do have a loving and merciful God who watches over us and will not forsake us.


Kasia Marie Allen is thankful she lives in Maplewood and can walk to a pie shop on the weekend (try the chocolate bourbon pecan!). She thinks flowers are always a brilliant idea, milk should be added to tea, and books are best in hardback but even better if they smell old and dusty.

Image: Woman-Silhouette-Waiting-For-S-5824100 by Denise-Bigstock

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