from the column
"In the Garden with Jesus"

His Perfect Timing

by Brianna C.

 Everyone is always waiting for something, whether it’s for dinner to be finished, company to arrive, or to hear from a friend.  But most young ladies I know are waiting for something which often seems to take a great deal more patience.  They’re waiting for the Lord to provide a life partner.  At 15, I feel very incompetent to be writing on this topic, but I think the desire and sense of waiting is there whether one is 15, or 25.  So, how do we learn to wait contentedly?  And, what do we do while we wait? 

God gives us longings and desires for a reason.  But before He can provide for these (natural) desires, He wants to know how much we really trust Him.  Are we willing to follow Him all the way, through the desert, the mountains, and the lowlands?  Are we willing to say, “Here Lord, take my life and desires, they’re Yours”?  God has given His own Son’s life for us; in return, He wants our loyalty, our love.  Often, He gives us this time of waiting for desires to be fulfilled, or His will to be made clear, so that we can learn to walk with Him, and be fully content.  Have you “fallen in love” with Jesus?  He desires us to draw close to Him.  He wants to be our Best Friend, our Closest Confident, and our most trusted Counselor.  We have only to let Him.  We need to give our hearts and desires to Him.  This is much more easily said then done!  I’m currently struggling with some things related to this, but God is a God of grace, and He will see us through the storms.  If we learn to become fully dependant on Him, we’ll reach a state of happiness and pure joy, content knowing that His love is there.  If it’s a part of God’s plan for you to marry, your husband will fail you, no matter how faultless he may be.  He’ll have his long days, his trying moments.  But God will never fail us, so if we learn to be reliant on Him now, we’ll be able to contentedly serve our husbands, or whomever God places in our life later on.

What can we do while we wait?  I heard the expression once, “Work while you wait!”  God doesn’t expect us to sit, and sit, and sit just waiting for Him to whisk that “special someone” into your life.  We need to wait patiently, but while waiting, there’s much that we can do.  Many of you have younger siblings.  What a blessing we can be to our Mothers, by helping with the young children, schooling some of our siblings, fixing the meals, sewing for the family, etc.  If you don’t have younger siblings, perhaps there’s a young Mother in your area who is wore out and could use some help with her young ones, or laundry or whatever the case might be.  Does your Father have a home-based business or ministry?  What can you do to help him?  Are there lonely widows in your community who could use a hand with yard or house work, or who would like some company?  As daughters, sisters and young ladies, we can be used so much by God, if we don’t sit grumbling in our current state.  Remember Rebecca, Isaac’s wife?  She was serving her father at the well when she met, unknowingly, the servant of her soon-to-be husband.  Had she been just “sitting and waiting” she might never have met Him.  Instead, she was making every moment count, and being a blessing to her family.  All of the skills that we learn by serving those around us will be beneficial and most likely necessary when we start our own homes.  When we’re married it will truly be a wonderful and blessed thing, and won’t “tie us down”, so don’t take me wrong.  However, we’ll be very busy serving our husbands, and won’t be able to serve others outside of the family (or in our parents’ family) in as many unique ways. 

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Featured in the May2006 issue of With all of Thy Heart. (c) May 2006  With all of Thy Heart E-zine