I’m thinking about Waiting this week, and about God’s Timing.<\/p>\n
God’s Timing is beautiful! I know it well, and I’ve seen evidence of that lately, in a very simple but big way.<\/p>\n
In April, I was elected to the 2019 John Newbery Award Committee. A dream come true.<\/p>\n
The thing is, four years ago, I was on the ballot for the 2015 Newbery Committee – and I missed being elected by 15 votes! Out of about 800 voters. My disappointment was enormous and huge.<\/p>\n
But here’s where God’s timing comes in: This is a much better time in my life. Being on the Newbery committee makes my Empty Nest and Single State an asset, rather than something to be sad about. I’m going to need to spend a whole lot of time reading – and no one will mind.<\/p>\n
And I have another reason to be thankful for the timing – my library system is going to pay for my trips to ALA Conferences to serve on the committee. I can safely say that this would not have happened four years ago, for various reasons.<\/p>\n
But that doesn’t change how disappointed I was when it didn’t happen when I wanted it to.<\/p>\n
And that reminds me of something else I want in my life. Or perhaps I should say someone else I want in my life.<\/p>\n
Yes, being single is an asset for serving on the Newbery committee. But yes, I still want to find a new partner to share my life with.<\/p>\n
It’s been awhile now since I shut off my online profile. I felt that God was telling me to “Wait on the Lord.”<\/p>\n
But this past week, I got into a little bit of a funk about that. There were several reasons. A big one was that a very good friend who is not a Christian said something about not liking to watch me letting life pass me by.<\/p>\n
Oh my goodness, that got me defensive! Because I’m HAPPY<\/em>, doggone it!<\/p>\n Trouble is, he knows me well enough to know that I really do want to have a man in my life again.<\/p>\n And then I argued with him, and he said some things that made it worse. Though eventually, he apologized and we’re good – talking about other things.<\/p>\n But I’m thinking about Waiting.<\/p>\n I know in my heart that I can trust God with my future. And I also am super happy in the present.<\/p>\n It’s interesting to me that it didn’t necessarily help to tell my friend the human and perfectly natural reasons why I don’t want to go back online right now. I’m on the Newbery committee – I honestly don’t want to give it a lot of energy. I’m focusing on reading for the next year and a half. If I try to find someone online, I will have to change my strategy, anyway (I was not having much success with that method) – and that would take a whole lot of energy.<\/p>\n But the truth is, I do feel like God told me that He’s got this – that I don’t have to take charge of this! That this is something He’d like me to put in His hands. <\/p>\n And that’s hard for me to do. When there are things I can<\/em> do to help find someone – post an online profile, go to meet-ups – am I “letting life pass me by” if I don’t do them? <\/p>\n Well, I don’t believe so.<\/p>\n But there are danger points. I think this particular time is a danger point because I’m so eager to start reading for the Newbery! I got one Advance Reader Copy of a 2018 book passed on to me a few weeks ago, and I was so excited to get started! But now I have nothing. And work suddenly got much less frantic, when the kids went back to school.<\/p>\n I thought I’d ask God for more confirmation that I should still<\/em> be waiting. And you know what verse I got this time? John 4:50 – “The man took Jesus at his word and departed.” <\/p>\n What I feel like that’s saying? You KNOW I’ve got this, Sondy! Trust me, and go about your business.<\/em><\/p>\n So – I’m trying. In fact, the day I read that verse, I thought I should look back at what I thought Jesus’ words to me were about this – and it turned out that exactly one year before was one of the times I felt God was telling me to “Wait on the Lord” – and did give me a little sign.<\/p>\n And I believe it. I believe this will work out. And even if I’m totally wrong and I never get married – my life is good, and rich and full. I am absolutely sure that I don’t want to marry anyone who will not enhance my life and build me up in my faith. I’d rather be single – because my life as a single person is very sweet.<\/p>\n I just need to remind myself of that now and then!<\/p>\n And then I go back to strategies – The thing about waiting is that being impatient doesn’t speed things up one little bit. In fact, being impatient makes it seem a lot longer.<\/p>\n And my impatient times sneak up on me.<\/p>\n But there are strategies to happily waiting. Being thankful is a big one of those.<\/p>\n And you know what? I bet part of the problem was that since April, I’ve been SO excited and happy about the Newbery, I haven’t even needed to employ strategies to be happy!<\/p>\n So, yes, some of this is probably that I got impatient about getting started on my reading for the Newbery. Getting to read just one eligible book tantalized me. It won’t be long now, Sondy! (And I hope on this weekend to read some last books for grown-ups before my Newbery reading starts.)<\/p>\n This post didn’t turn out to be nearly as profound as I’d hoped. But here’s what I’m trying to say:<\/p>\n I’ve seen clearly that God’s timing is beautiful – in the Newbery committee, as well as other disappointments I’ve suffered.<\/p>\n I believe that God’s timing will be beautiful about finding a life partner, too.<\/p>\n And I do believe God has told me that I can put that one into His hands.<\/p>\n And if I’m wrong about that? Well, my life is very, very good. It’s definitely a win-win situation.<\/p>\n Okay, I’m going to re-evaluate after the Newbery. And ask God. But for now? I don’t have time to pour my energy into finding someone, anyway.<\/p>\n And God’s not mad at me for getting into a little funk. I’m trying not to be mad at myself. I’m also trying to shift gears and notice again just how very beautiful life is right now.<\/p>\n I’ll close with some verses from Psalm 86 —<\/p>\n Bring joy to your servant, Lord, I’m thinking about Waiting this week, and about God’s Timing. God’s Timing is beautiful! I know it well, and I’ve seen evidence of that lately, in a very simple but big way. In April, I was elected to the 2019 John Newbery Award Committee. A dream come true. The thing is, four years ago, I […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4,22],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-11192","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-devotional-thoughts","category-love"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sonderbooks.com\/sonderjourneys\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11192","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sonderbooks.com\/sonderjourneys\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sonderbooks.com\/sonderjourneys\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sonderbooks.com\/sonderjourneys\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sonderbooks.com\/sonderjourneys\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=11192"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/sonderbooks.com\/sonderjourneys\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11192\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sonderbooks.com\/sonderjourneys\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=11192"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sonderbooks.com\/sonderjourneys\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=11192"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sonderbooks.com\/sonderjourneys\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=11192"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\nfor I put my trust in you.
\nYou, Lord, are forgiving and good,
\nabounding in love to all who call to you.
\nHear my prayer, Lord;
\nlisten to my cry for mercy.
\nWhen I am in distress, I call to you,
\nbecause you answer me.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"