Wait.

Hope.

When I was a young girl, our family would go to the lake for a week in the summer. We were a family of eight children and most of the time we were joined by our cousins.

The big adventure was night fishing, but the boat only held so many. Every year, I anticipated being old enough to go night fishing, hoping it would be my turn.

My dad would say, “Every doggie has his day”, after I was told to wait, yet another year. I felt disappointment, yet deep down I knew I would get my chance.

This was my introduction to HOPE.

The time did come for me to experience the joy and adventure of night fishing and the memory still resides in my heart as a childhood favorite.

I have since been in multiple seasons of waiting:

Infertility, pregnancy and the birth of my quadruplets.

Job opportunities and business launch.

How long for relational healing?

When do I relocate to Austin?

My life’s answers and revelations did not come independent of a waiting period. Some were years long, others’ months, weeks, days or hours. There was no way to predict when the answers would come. I chose to persevere in the waiting period.

The key in the waiting is HOPE.

Waiting without hope make the heart sick and can lead to despair.

Waiting with hope creates vision, spurs anticipation, and releases us from control.

Hope can renew our strength and power and open our eyes to dream big.

I am well acquainted with hope now. It is rooted and grounded in God. It is believing what I cannot see.

And when I do “see” and experience the adventure, promise or desire, it is always better than I dreamed possible!

My word for 2018: HOPE

Those who wait on the Lord shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings like eagles, they shall run and not be weary, they shall walk and not faint.

Isaiah 40:31