For a long time now, I've felt like my life has just been a long, continuous cycle of waiting. Waiting for acceptance letters, waiting to get started on the future, waiting for results, waiting for trying times to be over, waiting for prayers to be answered, etc. And I believe many of you reading this can relate too, whether you're waiting for a significant other, a child, healing or maybe just a complete miracle. But regardless of what any of us find ourselves waiting for, I believe it's important to remember that the wait is just as significant as destination we're aiming for. But we have a choice in our period of waiting, a choice that can dictate its entire duration. We can either choose to fill our wait with worry or with wisdom. One can give you just enough adrenaline and air to push you through the next wave, while the other can give you enough direction to make it back to shore and regain your footing. It's one or the other, you decide.

I can't think of a single person that actually enjoys waiting. When you think about it, there's nothing appealing about being stranded or exhausting yourself to find a way out; the current seems to get stronger and stronger, and we seem to get weaker and weaker, surrendering to it's force. But sometimes we allow ourselves to get so caught up in worrying what the outcome of our current situation will be that we lose our perspective and miss the big picture.

So many times I've found myself saying, "If I can just get through this," or "things will get better if this particular event would work out in my favor," and though we're all human and can only handle 24 hours at a time, sometimes, there comes a time when you have to start learning the lessons that these long days are bringing. As easy as it is just to hang on to the shipwreck around you and float into the wreckage of the next day, eventually you have to keep your head above the waves long enough to take in the pieces around you. And when you start to take in all that surrounds you, you find it easier to sustain the crash of the waves, and suddenly, you wonder why you ever convinced yourself that just going through the motions was a better plan. Just like the driftwood of the wreckage, your wisdom is floating all around you. While you're waiting, it's waiting to be used. You might get a splinter or a scrape when you finally decide to grab ahold of the damaged pieces, but once you do, all you have to do is pull yourself up enough to stop drowning and start using your pieces to help you weather the storm.

When you do, you'll see that it wasn't the wasn't force of the waves that took you down or disturbed your sail, it was what you built your ship on.