The Waiting Room

It is amazing when you stop to think about how often we find ourselves in a waiting room of one kind or another. I wonder how many years of our lives we spend waiting? Maybe in a doctors office or hospital, a line at Wal-Mart or Starbucks, McDonald's drive-thru or airport security, stop light, lunch line, concert line, traffic jam...you get the point! We do a ton of waiting, some of us patiently, and others...well not so much! I always get tickled when the people with the least likely reason to be impatient, are often the most impatient of all.

For instance, I can be standing in line at the grocery store with my phone ringing with a business call, juggling a screaming toddler, and running late for an appointment with a smile and kind words for the cashier; and the old retired lady behind me who has got the sour look on her face, tapping her foot, and has nowhere to go, but get home to watch the Price is Right and pet her cat :)

Let's face it, life is about waiting. We wait to grow up, wait to get married, wait to have kids, wait to retire, wait to have grandkids, then wait to die.  It's just what we do, wait.  But not always patiently, and waiting is often not easy.  I know, I have been there first hand and more than once on BIG issues.  I have been forced to figure out how to wait with a spirit of endurance and patience toward whatever I may be waiting for.  Over the last week, just in case you were wondering or hadn't seen on FB, my new puppy has been very sick and very near death.  Talk about the need for endurance and patience...waiting for the doctors to give me the update, waiting to see if he will improve, waiting to see just how big the vet bill will be...WAITING to pick him up from the hospital so he can be back in my arms.  In the last month or two, I have waited to see if I was buying a house, having a baby, if my husband was having surgery on his Achilles, and waiting to see if my puppy is going to live. That my friends is a lot of waiting on some very important stuff in a very short time frame.  But I had to wait, and it is better for those around me if I remain calm and ride out the waves with a sense of endurance and confidence knowing God is in control.  If not, I would probably have lost my mind.

Life has a way of testing us, our ability to sustain hardship, waiting, and wondering what next?  And in the end, we have two choices really.  We can either let our life and waiting ruin our day, our mood, our relationships with those around us.  Or, we can choose to roll with the punches, take things out of our control in stride, and realize sometimes life just is what it is, things just happen, and we must keep on a going.  Worrying seldom changes a single thing, and often makes us irritable, unhappy, and upset to the point of being sick.  Don't let life and it's trials drag you down, wait patiently, maybe even with a smile, try not to worry, and when life gets really crazy, pray...then smile and just move on :)

And one more thing, my sweet puppy Levi made it through and I need to throw a benefit dinner to pay for his enormous vet bill.  But he is back home barking at the cat, chewing my husbands croc, and sleeping on my couch during the day and snuggled up to me in bed at night :) Patience and perseverance paid off on this one!! Thanks Quail Corner Animal Hospital in Raleigh, NC for saving my sweet furbaby!!