Faith

Arm yourselves and be brave 1 Maccabees 3:58

Waiting, waiting and more waiting. We wait for a lot of things in our lives. We wait for doctor’s appointments, to graduate, to get a new job, to find happiness, to get fit, to do something new or to just figure out what God wants us to do with our lives. After praying for weeks and being patient, it can get very discouraging waiting for answers. So what are we supposed to do during the times of waiting besides pray and stay faithful? How do you stay faithful during the waiting?

During times of waiting, I tend to put my prayer life in cruise. I tell myself it’s ok to take some time off and just do life by myself. Which as most of us know, turns into absolute chaos. During my time of waiting, I get very negative and feel like God is not with me, as if he has not heard my request the past couple months or even years. I find myself not saying prayers before bed, or when I wake up in the morning, I also tend to fall into sin more easily. All of the little things tend to bug me and rather than praying or asking God to help me, I just continue on with a negative attitude and dig a deeper hole. I always seem to go in spurts with my praying and really trying to know God. When I was younger, I would only go to God when I wanted something. So, I’d pray for a while, maybe like a month, would not receive what I wanted, and then give up again. Then the cycle would repeat. I would want something or something bad would happen, so I would pray and then either receive my request or just assume God was ignoring me. But in all reality, he wasn’t. It can be hard to break this cycle, it wasn’t until this past June I realized I need to be faithful and pray through the waiting and the “unanswered” prayers.

In June, it occurred to me that I was spending way too much time at work and my life was centered around it and not God. I was fine with only going to mass on Sundays and doing really nothing more. My period of waiting had turned into months of distancing myself from God. Our relationship was not where I wanted it to be or where God wanted it. I began to read my bible more, read Christian books, read about saints, I started listening to podcasts, followed various catholic accounts on Instagram and filled my life with him.

In July, I ran a local race called the Minster Mile, which I had found out about through Instagram. It was a mile-long race for a great local organization. I followed the event on Instagram and came across a business called Made for More. Made for More is a local business that sells shirts, mugs, water bottles and more to help benefit local charities. HOW COOL is that! So, I of course followed Made For More and because of this business, things changed for me. Before long, I realized how much I had been missing out on the past 6 months. My feeling of hopelessness started to fade, I found joy in everyday and have literally just been so much happier with my life. You see, following certain accounts brings up other accounts on Instagram when you go to search, so before long, I had found Blessed is She, The Living Person, Almighty One Athletics, Coffee with Saints, The Catholic Woman, The Catholic Feminist Podcast and many more. I realized that after all, we all really are made for more than this life here on earth. I even had the inspiration to start a blog of my own, the push to start a young adult women’s bible study and the desire to teach religion on Wednesday evenings. All of this because I saw local involvement from other young adults.

I look at organizations/businesses such as the Minster Mile, Almighty One Athletics and Made for More and am so inspired. What we do matters, and how we spend our time matters. God is always searching for us and waiting for us to find him. Even in the waiting for things in our lives, we can be planning, praying or even helping others around us. There may only be 4 people that read my blogs, but that’s 4 people who I might have inspired or touched in some way. I’ve decided I’m done spending my time of waiting in a negative attitude and being hopeless. Never in 100 years did I think God would call me to write a blog, start a bible study or teach religion. But, as I’ve said so many times before, he does work in mysterious ways. Waiting is inevitable, but what we do during the waiting is what’s important. Always remember, we are made for more.

He does great things beyond our knowing  Job 37:5

Links! Check them out!!

Made For More Apparel and More https://madeformoreapparelandmore.com/

Almighty One Athletics  https://www.almightyoneathletics.com/

The Minster Mile https://www.theminstermile.com/

Blessed is She https://blessedisshe.net/