I married when I was 39 years old. He was 45. Why did so much time pass before we met and married?
The doctor scheduled my mother’s gallbladder surgery for a Wednesday. Then Friday. The surgery never happened. Her heart was out of rhythm each time. She told me on the phone that Friday night, “I’m so discouraged.”
My friend started her coaching business two years ago. Although she secured clients, spoke at events, and provided workshops for various groups, she struggled to keep the business afloat.
We often wonder why things we pray for and pray over seem to take so long.
Roe v. Wade took nearly 50 years to overturn at the Supreme Court. Visions for opening new pregnancy help centers may take a decade to see the reality. A center director in Texas whom I recently interviewed told me about all the obstacles she experienced before her center could open, including COVID in 2020 and 2021, and opposition from the town council simply because they didn’t fully understand what a pregnancy resource center does.
Perhaps a center wants to become a medical clinic but can’t find a medical director or nurses/sonographers. Perhaps a center wants to expand and open another location. Or a center wants to offer maternity housing.
Each vision, each step, requires guidance from God … and His timing.
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We live in a society of “instant.” Instant coffee was invented years ago. Microwaves made meals instantly, cooked, and hot. Cell phones made instant calls and later long-distance calls at no extra charge. Snap Chat and Tik Tok offer immediate short messages and videos. Society wants everything right here and right now.
God doesn’t always work that way.
The Bible says in Ecclesiastes 3, “There is a time for everything, and a season for every activity…”
Just as there are seasons in nature, which God created, there are seasons in our lives, personally and professionally. God may give us an idea and a vision, but that doesn’t mean today is the day for that to come to fruition. We are instructed to trust in the Lord and He will guide our paths (see Proverbs 3: 5 & 6).
Don’t fear the vision God gives you nor the length of time needed to fulfill it. Instead, trust in His guidance and His timing.
The center I worked at for 13 years, True Care Women’s Resource Center, took more than 20 years to become a medical clinic.
The right building was needed, as was the right executive director, board, medical director, and nursing staff.
Earlier this year, True Care opened a second location in response to an abortion center that opened in the community.
Extra staff were needed, as well as funds to pay the lease. God cast the vision within the director and board two years prior when word leaked out that an out-of-state group planned to open an abortion facility, and though doors closed to True Care during those two years, even up to a month prior to the organization desiring a second location, new doors opened at just the right time – two weeks after the abortion facility opened, True Care opened its new center one block away.
Tweet This: Don’t fear the vision God gives you nor the length of time needed to fulfill it. Instead, trust in His guidance and His timing.
Many years ago, a song released within the contemporary Christian arena called, “In His Time.” I chose that song to be part of the wedding ceremony when Greg and I married nearly 23 years ago.
I often think of that piece of music when I hear about pregnancy centers’ new endeavors, such as a maternity home in Wisconsin, another location near Miami, an adoption program in Tennessee, or a brand-new center in North Carolina.
I am blessed to share these stories, and other Pregnancy Help News writers also share similar stories. God is working in the pregnancy help movement, perhaps not in the timing we want, but within His all-knowing timing.
Why didn’t I meet and marry Greg earlier in life? Because neither of us were ready. We had to grow as individuals as well as in our faith, and we had to appreciate a strong friendship instead of an instant physical attraction.
Why didn’t my mother’s surgery go as planned? Because she has a heart issue that needs to be addressed. She is scheduled to see a cardiologist in mid-August, and the gallbladder removal surgery will take place a few weeks later.
Why didn’t my friend’s business take off? Because she was needed elsewhere this year, serving as interim executive director for an international child ministry she has supported financially and as a board member for decades. Her skills are being used right now to help this ministry transition from one director to another and help the staff and the donor pool prepare for that change.
Our timing is not always God’s timing. He places us, just as He did Queen Esther, for such a time as this (see Esther 4:14). In His time, we will achieve those things for which He provided vision and passion. Likely not, however, in the Snap Chat or Tik Tok way.
For my thoughts are not your thoughts,
neither are your ways my ways, declares the LORD.
For as the heavens are higher than the earth,
so are my ways higher than your ways
and my thoughts than your thoughts.
- Isaiah 55: 8 & 9
