Philippians 4:6-7

[becky frey]

I have been doing mission trips and camps whenever and wherever I possibly could for the past three years. I have spent most available time in those years serving in short term missions. I just started my first real job and it's amazing. I love it. Being an adoption caseworker for a Christian, non-profit organization is so wonderful because I'm serving people and using my faith daily. The only downside is that I have no vacation time built up so I am unable to participate in any mission teams in the next 6-9 months. I obviously am participating locally in missions because that is something very important to me, but Nicaragua and South Africa especially are now both a part of my being and I miss them and want to go back ASAP. Because of the previous job I had, I could take off whenever I wanted. I haven't made any long-term commitments in a VERY long time and so this has been such a wonderful yet challenging period of change for me. For those of you who don't know me, I have absolutely NO patience. I don't like to wait and I'm not good at it either. Making a full-time commitment to a job has forced me to completely rely on God because I'm struggling with the realization that I can't go back to Nicaragua this winter. I'm growing in my relationship with God because He is teaching me that I need to learn how to wait. Because my Mama loves me, she is also trying to help me with this. She bought me a card with a verse on it that I've basically been meditating on about 20 times a day and I wanted to share it. The verse is Philippians 4:6-7 and it says, "Don't worry about anything; instead, pray about everything. Tell God what you need, and thank Him for all He has done. If you do this, you will experience God's peace." This verse is printed under the heading "God may say 'wait,' but He never says 'worry.'" This has been my constant prayer over the past few weeks and I think it's finally starting to sink into my brain and my heart. I have certainly learned from mission trips that waiting is an important part of life and sometimes God does say to wait. If anyone else struggles with waiting or worrying, please let me know if there is something that helps you.

[jrabbach]

I am also extremely impatient a lot of the time. I often think that the best way to go about something is to "just do it!" I guess there have been times where patience has been forced upon me, and honestly I guess I am better for the experience, but it can be hard to understand why I had to wait.

I do truly believe that God has a time line, and He has been so amazing in guiding me to that I am becoming a little less impatient when I realize that God obviously still has something in store for me.