Biding My Time

From August of '07:

To bide one's time is to wait patiently for an opportunity, so says Webster. The title of my blog came to me this morning as I thought through my upcoming year and the hint of wonderful new opportunities awaiting me.

I am not sure how consistently patient I have been, but for the past 16 years I have been biding my time. Please don't misunderstand me...I have enjoyed and loved being right where I was meant to be! The past decade and a half have been a whole series of opportunities! But starting this September I will have reached a serious milestone. I will not have a child in my home during the school day. I won't need to formulate, and then re-formulate lesson plans and field trips. I won't have to drag them with me on errands. I will have literally hours during the day that are kid-less.

I have to admit I have a strange mix of elation and apprehension at the opportunities that are just around the corner.

Do I get a job to earn some extra cash? Do I up my volunteer work at the church, and if so, in which capacity? How about the kids schools? The community? Do I actually become a conscientious housekeeper? Do I expand my culinary "efforts"? Do I start watching HGTV? Do I join the gym? Do I start to blog?

Thankfully, I am not at this milestone alone. I am reassured by Scripture that God has created me with a specific plan in mind and already has good works set out for me to do for His Glory. I commit here and now to patiently wait for Him to show me what those new opportunities are and to lean on Him for the accomplishment of them. I also have a loving and faithful husband who is looking forward to this new phase of life and encouraging me to embrace it. And I have some fun friends who are just a speed-dial or a blog away who share like interests and issues.

Reality is that this is just one milestone in my life. There are lots more ahead of me, which means lots of future opportunities opening up. Very exciting stuff!

Thanks for walking with me as I continue to bide my time.

This was written almost three years ago. Since that time lots of new opportunities have been set before me, big and small, but none of those opportunities have prevented me from blogging on a fairly regular basis...until now.

In January of this year, a couple friends and I launched a new ministry, for women within our church walls and out, that involves a weekly blog and a daily devotional (www.giventhetime.wordpress.com). Needless to say, my computer time has greatly increased and I find that I need to take a sabbatical from my personal blog.

I am so thankful for the almost 3 years of writing experience Biding My Time has given me. I have been forced to be creative when I didn't feel particularly so, I have learned to edit, and I have improved my writing skills. And it has been a lot of fun! But I am also excited that I am smack dab in the middle of one of those mysterious opportunities that I knew God had prepared for me way back then in '07. What a ride!!