Few things in life we learn are worth mentioning. Like tieing your shoes. We’ve all done it. Right? Boiling water. Not exactly brain surgery material. Taking out the trash. Ya. Good job.

And then there are the life lessons that come in time. Like enduring multiple storms and seasons of laborious heartache and pain to finally understand that in the middle of the storm, in the waiting rooms of our lives, it can be very easy to waste precious time.

We do this all too often.

When we are in the muck and mud of things, trying to dig ourselves out, why do we often pick up the wrong tools? Or just the opposite, when we are in a time of ease and good transition why do we not take notes and prepare our hearts for hard times, as if the hard seasons won’t come and go.

A lovely and very wise Indonesian friend of mine said it like this…

“Life is a classroom. Each class we enter we must pass. If we do not pass we stay there. So, while you are in the class listen and take notes. Learn. And graduate the classroom. Then, in the next class, apply what you learned from the previous and ….take notes again”.

O.K. Not her exact words, but close! Very close! 😉

In last week’s blog post “Responsive Solutions to Those Challenging Problems ” two of the solutions I offered you were Digging Deep and Taking Action.

When we’re afraid and worried, it can be difficult to dig deep and take action. And even if we wanted to, what would that look like?

Today I want to share five things I am doing differently during the waiting room of my life. In other words, how I’ve been taking my own advice.

Becuase fighting for the good life is never easy. 

• Speak truth into my life and those around me. Too much time I spent in the hallways of life not loving myself when I thought I should be doing better. And even worse? I’ve hurt others who were sitting and waiting along side of me. This life we have been given is so unbelievably precious. Make sure you are speaking the truth into your life and those around you. Don’t waste precious time buying into the fears and worries that attempt to hijack your moments.

[bctt tweet=”Don’t waste precious time buying into the fears and worries that attempt to hijack your moments.” username=”cassierajewich”]

• Focus on the desired outcome and not the now.  How hard is it to get tangled in the now?  I am currently working hard to raise a sixteen-year-old girl who is nearly just as lost as I was at her age. I have to remind myself she has her own journey. Just as I did, and just as I struggled, she will too. That is the process. I can not save her. But I can look forward to what I hope for. Trusting the outcome will be beautiful and worth all the hard work. Don’t forget you are working toward a goal. It is very messy in the middle. But keep your eyes on the prize ahead. 
• Pray. Fervently. Praying was something I usually did in a tight jam. You know, “Dear God, please don’t let me get pulled over right now” or “Dear God, I know I screwed up. If you fix this, I promise to do better.” And after too much time would pass and I would find my heart suffocating in the battlefield of life, my prayer might shift to this, “My God. My God. Why have you FORSAKEN ME??” With bawling eyes and a lake of tears. But through the years and with maturity, I have seen the fruit of a fervent prayer. The calmness even if nothing around me changes. The shift of my own heart and even others. Prayer has become the first thing I do when I find myself impatiently looking for the wait to end. It helps me rest. It gives me peace in the storm and the transition of unexpected delays.  
• Find the joy in the middle of the mess. O.K, O.K., I have not mastered this. And it sounds a little fruity I know. But hear me out. I’ve always had a sense of humor. A grand and sarcastic way of bringing humor to life’s tragedies. Most often in retelling some of the horrific choices I’ve made or the terrible incidents nearly purposefully constructed. But to find joy in the mess? It’s a little different than sarcastic humor. It’s more like a rest. A peaceful knowing that the mess is almost perfectly designed. 
• Resting in a God that I have come to know and trust. This is digging deep. Becuase resting when you feel like you should take action is hardly an easy thing to do. Resting in a God that more than likely has a different plan than yours? Even more baffling. Talk about cramping my stubborn style. This has taken years and an ongoing desire to surrender my need to orchestrate a perfect setting that provides immediate comfort. And yet every single time I come to this place, I am amazed at what takes place.  

Sounds exhausting? I know. Sometimes I lay on the couch and eat lots of chocolate. Or sit in my bed and read a good book, have a glass of wine and eat lots of chocolate and drink milk too! In between the digging deep and taking action, I need to rest. I need to shop and I need to cook some good soul food. I need to laugh and hold my babies. Snuggle and soak in this short and very brief time of parenting.

Question: What does your waiting room look like?