Waiting and waiting

"I wait for the Lord, my soul waits,

and in his word I hope;

my soul waits for the Lord

more than those who watch for the morning,

more than those who watch for the morning."

Psalm 130

It seems that I find myself in a continual state of waiting lately, and I am impatient.  I am not one to be loudly impatient, but I am impatient none-the-less.  I prefer a path that is level and paved rather than one that is uphill and strewn full of tiny pebbles that get between the bottoms of my feet and my sandals.  My path is full of those pesky pebbles, and it is anything but level.  I've been off kilter for quite awhile now, but HOPE seems to be peeking it's head over the horizon.  I catch a glimpse of the light every now and then.

The pebbles in my path are many and varied, but I am learning to name them and rejoice in their presence.  There was a time when I thought that when I reached this time in my life that I could just be an observer.....  that I could just sit back and enjoy whatever life had to offer me.  Boy, was I wrong!  I am learning that each age and stage of life brings with it it's own challenges. There will always be something to worry over.  There will always be choices to be made.  There will always be mistakes and things we wish we could change.  BUT...... there will always be things to be grateful for and things to to rejoice in.  The pebbles just keep reminding me that I'm still alive, and that I'm not the One in control.

Today I found myself in a place I really didn't want to be: 

Hubby was kind enough to offer to renew my driver's license for me on-line yesterday.  Unfortunately, it had been about 12 years since I had updated my photo, so they required me to actually go in and renew it in person.  When I arrived, I had to wait in my car for awhile just to get a parking place!!  Imagine my surprise when some other people arrived and actually parked along the curb UNDER a SIGN that read, "Do not park along curb."  Makes you wonder whether they issued a ticket along with the new driver's license.  The DMV is a great place to people watch.  The place was packed this morning, but everyone was accommodating.  The poor girl in front of me was trying to get her license using her passport from Zimbabwe, (It wasn't going to happen.) and there were a couple of kids there for their driving tests (Since when do they let 12 year olds drive?  At least they looked like 12 year olds.)  For that matter, after looking at my new photo, when did I start to look like I'm 112 years old??  Hubby was kind enough to tell me that he doesn't think I look old.  See why I love him??  The blessing is that I don't have to go back there for another 12 years.  I might give up driving by then if I have to have my picture taken again. 

 Probably not.  

At least that is one pebble that's not irritating my foot anymore.  When the license comes, I can just tuck it in my wallet and I won't have to look at it very often.....and when I do, my thumb might just slip over the edge of the picture.

There are several other pebbles annoying me right now, but I know that somewhere further on down the path I'll be able to sit a spell and shake one or two out.  I might even be able to take the time and look at the light of HOPE peeking over that horizon and thank God for letting me know He's walking right beside me.

Gratitude for:

- No surgery for Me!!!  Therapy won't be easy, but I'm looking forward to having a more useful right arm.

- Concentrated help looking into our church building project.  At least we should have an answer sooner rather than later.

- Clean flowing water.  We were under a boil order a few days ago.  That also made me thankful for the water store in town!!