My Soul Waits

I wait for the Lord, my whole being waits, and in His word I put my hope. I wait for the Lord more than watchmen wait for the morning. — Psalm 130:5-6

I have a routine that I follow almost every weekday: I wake up and gasp at the forty-five-year old woman staring back at me in the mirror.

Then I make sure Caroline eats something for breakfast while I pack her lunch.

After she leaves for school, I pour myself a cup of coffee and then sit on the couch with my dogs, Piper and Mabel, on either side of me, and that’s where I stay for the next two to three hours while I catch up on email and write and sometimes watch an episode of This Is Us that I recorded the night before. Eventually, I get up and get dressed and usually go work out and run whatever errands I need to run that day, and then when I get back home, I load Piper and Mabel into my car and take them to the dog park to run.

I don’t know if you’re a dog person, but dogs are brilliant. And they learn a routine pretty quickly. Piper and Mabel know my daily schedule, and so as soon as I pull into the driveway after running my early-afternoon errands, they know that it’s only a matter of time before I take them to the dog park. They follow me and whine at me and bark loudly every time I walk by the back door until I finally can’t stand it anymore and cave to their demands and their pleading puppy eyes. They wait for me. They put their hope in me. They wait for me more than watchmen wait for the morning, and I think people on the nightwatch are usually beyond thrilled to see dawn finally break.

And it makes me think about how I wait for the Lord in my life. Do I wait with an excitement and hope like Piper and Mabel wait for their trip to the dog park? Or am I missing out on all that He can offer because I so often forget to wait on Him and just run ahead to the next thing in my life? Do I spend too much time mired in disappointment instead of finding my hope in His presence and in His word? The honest answer is yes, but my dogs (of all the stupid ways I could learn something) have shown me what it looks like to wait with joy and anticipation, knowing that good things are always ahead when you wait on your Master and find your hope in Him.

Excerpted with permission from Everyday Holy by Melanie Shankle, copyright Melanie Shankle.

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Your Turn

Today, let’s wait on the Lord. Let’s anticipate with joy the time we set aside to be in His presence praying and listening and worshipping. Come share your thoughts on our blog. We want to hear from you! ~ Devotionals Daily