Are you in a waiting season? We all go through them, they are not always ideal as far as our timelines are concerned, but they happen and there is nothing we can do about them. Wait well and find something to hold on to is one way I like to stay encouraged during a waiting season. It doesn’t mean the wait automatically becomes easier, but if you spend your time on something else while you wait, you’ll spend less time worrying.
I’m coming up on 1 year of a new job and 1 year of leaving a toxic job and considering I was at my old job for 5 years and 11 months, I’ve had my fair share of waiting. While it’s not only limited to jobs, all of these tips can still apply regardless of what it is you’re waiting for or waiting on. That shared lets get into 5 ways to embrace your waiting season.
Find Scriptures that Speak to Your Waiting Season
A lot of your waiting season will look like “how can I stay encouraged and lifted up” especially when you feel like giving up. That was really what it is was for me. It’s easy to be motivated and feel inspired to hang on for a few days, maybe even a few weeks, but what happens when that buzz dies down and you’re back to feeling like “wow, will this ever be over for me?”.
Having scriptures that you can meditate on is similar to having affirmations, but more powerful. Scriptures are truth, they’ll never be changed which is why it’s so key to have some in your arsenal for when the times get hard.
Your Work Is Not in Vain | 1 Corinthians 15:38
God Will Guide You | Isaiah 58:11
Trust in the Lord | Proverbs 3:5-6
God Works Everything Out | Romans 8:28
Remember It’s Not the Wait Itself, It’s How You Wait
The attitude you have during your waiting season is crucial. It doesn’t mean you have to be perfect, peppy and always happy 100% of the time. I’d be lying if I told anyone I had the perfect attitude or perfect mindset while I waited. I did not. There were days where I was just overwhelmed with the idea that I was still waiting. Overcome with the thought that I had to endure and had been enduring for not just 1 or 2 years, but 4 and 5 years.
I’m so grateful that God gave me the desire to go forward with my blog because in that, it kept me going in my waiting season. It gave me something to work on and work toward and while every hobby or thing that you do doesn’t have to be or become a full time gig, it felt and still feels so amazing knowing that I was able to build what I’ve built while dealing with what felt like the hardest period of my life.
Work on something that brings you joy, do things that keep you going even when your season is still loading.
Work On Something In Your Waiting Season
Similar to what I shared in the last section, a great way to embrace your waiting season and almost distract yourself from what is frustrating you is by working on something.
What project or creative thing have you been wanting to develop? What skill have you wanted to improve upon? Maybe it’s time to join a co-working space or find a new people to be around that you can lean on when you feel like holding yourself up is too hard on your own.
It’s easier to get through when you have something else to keep you busy, trust me! Plus you’ll stay motivated for the next phase of your season once your current wait ends.
Be Encouraged By Those Who Are Experiencing What You’re Waiting For
This one can be tough, but if you do it the right way and look at it from a lens of “if they can, I can too” instead of a lens of “why not me” or “nothing happens for me” you’ll be encouraged while in your waiting season.
Even when I was at my old job, any time someone left, it gave me vision for my own exit. Shoot the owner’s niece left before me and that encouraged me because even she knew her skills would be better received and of use elsewhere, but she needed work and it was temporary. Not everyone believes in God, so I knew I had to continue with my wait, but you take those moments and use them for your own vision.
If you start to feel envious, feel worst or feel like nothing good happens to you because it happens to other people instead, you may have to scale back because comparison and feeling unworthy is very easy. We as humans have to remember that we are all individuals. Our lives are not the same as anyone else’s though we may have similar experiences. Our journey’s are not meant to be like anyone else’s even though we have things in common.
You can embrace your waiting season by being encouraged by someone else’s experience without absorbing it to the point of “it won’t happen for me”. The more you receive that vision and deny it will occur, the further away the occurrence will be. The enemy wants you to focus on the negative and the things that suck life out of you instead of the things that add to your life.
Your Timing Will Be Perfect Timing
You can embrace your waiting season by remembering when your time comes it will be the perfect time. Oftentimes we try to rush into the next thing, even when we so strongly feel like it’s our time to move on, but we’re not always ready. It takes us being in the next season to really look back at everything with a clear lens and realize why it couldn’t happen when it did. I wanted to be pregnant so bad by a certain time last year, but God was like “I’ll one up you on something you’ve been wanting pre-baby”. There was no way I would mentally survive being pregnant at my old job and not only that, God really showed out by answering my prayers regarding pregnancy exactly how I hoped he would. Had I stepped out on my own and got off track who knows what this season would have looked like.
Being able to work from home, which has been a non negotiable for a minute now, work in a space and with a company, I truly enjoy, have an easy pregnancy, be able to afford and have the opportunity to birth with midwives, chiropractic services being included in my benefits, the list goes on. The point is, the timing was perfect. Me being pregnant now is perfect.
Whatever it is you’re desiring, your perfect moment to experience it, is on the way. Embrace your waiting season even if it feels like it’s taking you out in the process. Your character and perseverance is being built. There is a time to sow and there is a time to reap and like my pastor always says, which is also written in the Bible, in Galatians 6:9 NKJV And let us not grow weary while doing good, for in due season we shall reap if we do not lose heart.
Don’t lose heart. Embrace your waiting season.
What ways have you struggled with your waiting season and what things have you done to make it easier?
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