My daughter Shelly had already been accepted to the university. But her chosen field of study required an audition. She was nervous, but confident. She performed well at her audition and truly felt that this was where God wanted her to be. And then, the waiting…..
As she waited, she became increasing less confident, less assured that she knew what God was telling her.
She started to experience doubt and even fear that all that she had prayed for and hoped for was about to be dashed. Two weeks of waiting felt like 2 years! She started to feel that when the letter came, if it ever came, it was going to be a rejection letter.
It was hard to watch my daughter transition so quickly from hopeful to hopeless. She cried to me wishing that the answer, whatever it was, would come soon. I struggled for a while, trying to find something to say that might help ease her fears, make the waiting easier and bring her back around to hope. I prayed for God to give me the right words or scripture, really anything to help bolster her spirits.
Right on time, and right in His time… He gave me the Word!
I was reading my email when I felt this urge to Google scripture; soon I was in the images tab. I found so many lovely watercolor pictures with scripture written in pretty fonts surrounded by flowers. And there it was, the answer from God – Psalm 46:5. There were so many iterations of that scripture that I began to feel like God wanted Shelly to hear this, to read it and receive it as His answer.
God is within her, she will not fall; God will help her at break of day.
Psalm 46:5
I shared it with her and she said she immediately felt better. Even though she still didn’t have an answer from the university, she felt more at peace.
She didn’t want to be hopeless anymore. She needed to find a way to wait in hope. That scripture helped her to remember the confidence she had felt before her audition. It helped her remember that wonderful feeling that God had placed her at that school for a reason. I was so glad that Father God had given me scripture to share with her
Waiting is hard. Every one of us needs to be reminded that while we wait, God is still with us! If He is within us, we will not fall!
Eventually, the letter did come. She had been accepted a second time, and she was going to be able to pursue her dreams. When she read the letter, she cried to me again; this time tears of joy. But also a few tears of sadness, convicted that she hadn’t trusted more. I wiped her tears and reminded her that God, in his infinite wisdom, had let this difficult time of waiting teach us to remember He is with us and within us; that we will not fall and that God will be our help.
Shelly and I spent more time thinking about waiting with hope. We learned to put our hope in His word; to trust in the Lord, not in our own understanding. We tried to see waiting as an opportunity to experience God’s goodness. Most importantly, we continue to pray with thankfulness for what God is going to do. The blessings yet to come can be extraordinary, if we will wait patiently and keep God deep in our hearts and minds!
