Dear HS Ladies {31 Days of Letters}

Dear High School Ladies,

Waiting is wretched.  I get it.  I’ve waited for a lot of things.  Many of them had to do with guys – or lack thereof.

I waited for someone to ask me to dance at 8th grade promotion.  I waited with baited breath for my 7-year crush to IM me.  I waited for a date to Homecoming. I waited for tryout results.  I waited for a guy to seem interested.  I waited for a date to Prom.  I waited for a boyfriend.

Many of those things never materialized.  Actually, most of those things never happened.  That crush did IM me and I did make some teams, but I didn’t get asked to any dances and I spent 24 years boyfriendless.

Those times of waiting with no results were a major knock to my womanly pride. I cried.  I filled pages in my journal with prayers and pleas and pain.

Before you feel sorry for my dateless, crushless high school existence, let me say that God absolutely knew what He was doing when He withheld what I wanted and waited for.

I made sincere commitments about purity and set high standards.  In my naiveté, I didn’t realize how small I was making my pool of acceptable guys.  My infatuations were far from meeting my requirements (yup, I had a written list and highly recommend doing so!).

While I spent mental and emotional energy trying to 1. smoosh my current crush into the box created by my standards, 2. manipulate circumstances to fit my personal agenda, or 3. figure out why none of it was working out, God was perfectly orchestrating His plan like only a master conductor could.

God was using the absence of what I desired to mold me more into the Godly woman I also wanted to become.  He arranged my romantic life in a way that guarded my convictions and boundaries, when I probably wasn’t willing to guard them myself.

Your romantic situation, or lack thereof, may seem depressing.  You may wonder if a guy will ever like you.  You may be dating up a storm, but, for what purpose?

Wherever you’re at on the spectrum, waiting isn’t a bad thing.  Waiting gives God control.  Waiting says God can pick the timing.  God’s timing will be different for everyone.  Waiting is hard, but don’t let the difficulty of waiting distract you from pursuing God whole heartedly.

Sincerely,

Emily – a fellow waiter…

You can find all my letters here.

For more information about the 31 Day Challenge, visit The Nester.