Everyone has
experience waiting for something. Every
day we wait on things, maybe it’s standing in line at the grocery store,
waiting in a doctor’s office or sitting in traffic at a stop light. Sometimes
it seems you wait forever on the thing you are waiting for and sometimes I feel
that the lord is really trying to get me to understand what it means to be
patient or wait.
When I
graduated from High School and was heading off to college, I had my life all
planned out and thought it would go something like this: I would study teaching at BYU, I would meet
an RM (returned missionary) not my freshman year like so many other girls, but
by the time I graduated. We would get
married and I would teach until the kids came.
We would have 2 boys and 2 girls and life would be perfect. But like many people….my plan for my life was
not what God had in store for me.
I did go to
BYU and became a teacher, but found myself still single in my mid 20’s. I got engaged, then was dumped and at the age
of 28 found myself entering the world of online dating. I began to wonder if I would ever find my Mr.
Right.
Eventually Nathan and I would meet online while he was stationed in Iraq
and I was teaching 6th grade in Orem. But my time waiting was not
over yet. We were married in April 2007, and
within the first year of our marriage I found myself saying goodbye as he returned to Iraq for a 15 month deployment. I waited to find Nathan, and again found
myself waiting to start that next phase in our lives. Though I thought that 15 months would last forever, it came and went.
Upon
Nathan’s return from Iraq we were both ready and excited to start our family,
but found ourselves waiting again as pregnancies turned into miscarriages time
after time.
I have learned and continue to learn what it
means to wait. The topic of waiting on
the lord has become a very personal one, but what does it really mean to wait
on the lord? I have come to learn that
it means more than just sitting around waiting on the Lord to bless me with the
righteous desires of the heart. More than just sitting around in my favorite pajamas,
watching my favorite show and feeling sorry for myself.
Yesterday I
was able to attend an event in Salt Lake called Time Out for Women. For those
of you who haven’t been it is a two day event filled with motivational
speakers, and has become a tradition for my mom and I to attend each year. One
of the speaker’s that touched me the most was a woman named Kris Belcher. She is a woman that over time found herself
without her eyesight. Her outlook and
humor when dealing with life, really touched me. She talked about the topic of waiting on the
Lord. First she talked about the word
waiting and gave the analogy of a waiter. We can think of waiting in terms of a waiter at a restaurant. In this sense, to wait on someone is to serve them. A good waiter or server gives his or her customers excellent care and attention by checking in often, learning their desires and attending to them. So it can be as we wait on the Lord.
In a talk by Elder Hales titled Waiting on the Lord: Thy
Will Be Done, Elder Hales also defines waiting on the Lord in the following ways.
- In the scriptures the word wait means to hope, to
anticipate and to trust.
-Waiting upon the lord means to stand fast, press forward
in faith having a perfect brightness of hope.
-Waiting upon the lord means saying Thy will be done O’
lord and not ours.
During her presentation at Time Out for Women, Sister
Belcher gave three strategies we can use to help us as we wait upon the
Lord:
1)
Look up- Elder Carl B
Cook in a recent conference address talks of a time when feeling overwhelmed: At the end of a particularly tiring day toward the end of my
first week as a General Authority, my briefcase was overloaded and my mind was
preoccupied with the question “How can I possibly do this?” I left the office
of the Seventy and entered the elevator of the Church Administration Building.
As the elevator descended, my head was down and I stared blankly at the floor.The
door opened and someone entered, but I didn’t look up. As the door closed, I
heard someone ask, “What are you looking at down there?” I recognized that
voice—it was President Thomas S. Monson.
I quickly looked up and responded, “Oh, nothing.” (I’m sure that clever
response inspired confidence in my abilities!)
But he had seen my
subdued countenance and my heavy briefcase. He smiled and lovingly suggested,
while pointing heavenward, “It is better to look up!” As we traveled down one
more level, he cheerfully explained that he was on his way to the temple. When
he bid me farewell, his parting glance spoke again to my heart, “Now, remember,
it is better to look up.”
As we parted, the words of a
scripture came to mind: “Believe in God; believe that he is … ; believe that he
has all wisdom, and all power, both in heaven and in earth.”1 As I thought of Heavenly Father and Jesus
Christ’s power, my heart found the
comfort I had sought in vain from the floor of that descending elevator.
President Monson’s
encouragement to look up is a metaphor for remembering Christ. As we remember
Him and trust in His power, we receive strength through His Atonement. It is
the means whereby we can be relieved of our anxieties, our burdens, and our
suffering. It is the means whereby we can be forgiven and healed from the pain
of our sins. It is the means whereby we can receive the faith and strength to
endure all things.7
What
do I do in my life to try to Look up?
Read my scriptures, say my prayers, attend the temple, attend my church
meetings each week, listen to uplifting music.
2) Look in- We can ask
ourselves, what can I learn from this trial or experience that will make me a
better person? Count our blessings and
express gratitude for that which we do have.
As this week is Thanksgiving this one stands out to me. What do I have to be grateful for? Being a
great aunt, being a great teacher, being a great wife, developing my talents, my
new home, etc.
How do I look
in? Read my patriarchal blessing and search for the gifts and promises I have
been given
3. Look out- One benefit of
waiting on a blessing is that it helps us to recognize those around us who are
also in need. Perhaps the need is
different than our own, but we are more aware.
I don’t know what blessings others are waiting on, but I do know that
they wait. I have found compassion and
empathy that I did not know I had. I remember
a time before I was married and I was attending the temple. I sat there in the temple deep in thought,
wrestling with an idea in my head. I was
aware of a woman sitting near me and didn’t think much of her until she left
and came back. Hesitantly she walked up
to me and told me that she could tell that I was deep in thought over something
and that she felt impressed to tell me that God was mindful of me and that
He loved me.
I was so grateful for this woman and her kindness to me that day. Her act of service encourages me to act on
the promptings that I receive.
How do I look
out? Serving others, noticing other’s
needs, fulfilling my duties and church callings and acting on promptings.
Recently I discovered a favorite scripture
in Isaiah 40:31-
31 But they that wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength; they shall mount
up with wings as eagles; they
shall run, and not be weary; and they shall walk, and not
faint.
What an
amazing promise!
Shifting
our attitude from one of just waiting, to one of waiting upon the Lord gives us
focus and purpose if we remember to Look up, Look in and Look out.
