I'm allergic to goldenrod, btw.  Oh well.  I don't miss it though...it is a pretty flower to look at, but it makes me sneeze and cough and itch like nothing else!

About waiting...I have had to do my fair share of waiting.  Waiting to graduate high school, waiting to graduate college, waiting for a boyfriend, waiting for a job, waiting for dinner...

The hardest waiting I've gone through was waiting for God to tell me what mission field He wanted in.  I did pretty much anything but wait.  I was working at a bank, and about 4 months from finishing college...and nothing.  I had no direction at all.  I was miffed.  So I investigated things, hoping that maybe if I educated myself on opportunities that God would realize how much I wanted to know, and then tell me.  So between January of that year to December, I poured my efforts into looking at mission organizations and different fields.  Even when I found something good, it just didn't feel right.  I'd always even correspondence with the group by saying that I was praying about it, and praying for them.  I tried different countries (Ukraine, Iraq, China, Russia, Nepal...etc), different venues (music, English, prayer, youth, kids...etc) and nothing fit.  About around December, I pretty much gave up and resigned to staying at my church, working among my own people...and granted, there's nothing wrong with that, but I had always felt God leading me overseas...always!

I immersed myself in our church's college and kids ministries, even helping with the youth when they needed an extra chaperone.  It was fun.  I felt fruitful...but not the way I always thought.  I met a guy too, and thought, well, I guess this is it.  This is where God is leaving me.  But then, in February, I found out about a job in Japan.  I knew next to nothing about Japan.  I thought that I'd at least do my duty and investigate it.  As I did, I felt a pulling for it.  I couldn't explain it.  I thought that maybe God was pulling my leg.  So I said, well, I need this much money (naming an amount that I thought was a little over-jumping, but figured God could do it if this was what He wanted).  In three weeks, I had it.  Through some other things, I had more confirmation for my going.  So I went, one month later. It happened so fast, and I'm glad for it.  But I'm glad for the waiting too.  I wouldn't have been prepared to go if I hadn't been waiting.

so prevelent...I just wrote on waiting on the Lord.   And no, it is not easy.  But if it were, would it be as sweet?  Great post.  I so need to get back to really observing what God has placed around me, and in doing so, waiting on him and listening to him.  Thank you!

Great post! It is hard to wait for the desires of our hearts. (Whether they are put there as a call from God or not.) However, I think we miss out on a lot by focusing on whatever it is we are 'waiting' for instead of focusing on what God has put right in front of us. Like you found with the goldenrod.

I have recently gotten impatient with waiting on God for a husband. It has always been my desire to be married and now my 'biological clock' is ticking louder. He has recently shown me that He has other work for me first. So I am doing His work while waiting. I can certainly choose to be happy and contented in doing so (well mostly). It is easier if my focus is on Him and all that I do have to be thankful for and not on what I don't have (or am waiting for). Sometimes I still get rather impatient, but He very graciously keeps reminding me of where He's got me just now, and happily so. I appreciate all His reminders that His timing is perfect and He knows better than I what I need now.

Be still, and know that I

God;

Thank you for posting this! It is exactly what I'm struggling with right now. I am waiting to find out if this guy is "the one," waiting to find out if my dreams are God's plans for me, waiting, waiting, waiting, and crying and being lonely and not knowing how to seek Him. I love Him so, I really do, I just don't know how more to seek Him.