When Waiting is Hard
- Ashley Qurollo
- 3 days ago
- 3 min read
Updated: 2 days ago
May 11, 2026
“Are we there yet?” ask my children, eager to arrive at our destination.
“No, not yet,” I confirm, wishing for their sakes (and for mine) that we had already arrived.
This generationally repeated scene played out countless times in my childhood and now in my own children’s childhood. Children are known for their limited perspective on time, and yet how often do we as adults grow impatient in the waiting, too.
How often does my heart cry out, “Are we there yet?” to my Heavenly Father. I want to arrive at what I think is good for me. I want to "be there" already.
But I get tired of waiting.
I get tired of longing.
My heart begins to murmur, “Doesn’t God know my needs? Doesn’t God understand the things that I so desperately desire? I mean, after all, I desire good things that could be used for Him.”
Yet it’s often in the waiting and the hoping and the praying that God is actually shaping, molding, and forming us.
Recently, I pulled out an index card from my bible and perused my cursive writing from last spring. I often like to write out bible verses, praises, and prayer requests on index cards and tuck them in my bible, and this card had survived the occasional purges when my bible gets too full of cards.
On this card was written under the prayer request section, “another baby.” Here I sit almost a year later, and God has granted that heart desire. My little fella rocks in his swing while I take time to write this blog post, a testament of God’s answers to prayer.
God did not work on my time table. When I finally came to a place of surrender and rest in whatever God desired, peace came and not long after, the hope that I so desperately desired.
But I forget so quickly that God answers prayer. He often does not work on my time tables, and when He works in His own time, I think He is late just like the child who whines his displeasure during the long road trip.
So often I forget that God is most interested in shaping me into His image, not in pampering my every desire and whim. Yet God is a loving Father Who delights in giving to His children, but He does not spoil—He does not give extravagantly to the point of ruin. God gives good gifts in His time and way.
What can I do in the meantime of waiting, when life feels like a discordant suspension of notes waiting for the melodic release?
Praise. I must praise God for what He has already done and is currently doing. So often I neglect to praise God as many times as I prayed earnestly for a need or desire.
Psalm 145:2 Every day will I bless thee; and I will praise thy name for ever and ever.
Keep praying. I must not quit bringing those burdens and even desires before the Lord. I can ask the Lord to grant those desires or to reshape my desires into what He desires.
Psalm 145:19 He will fulfil the desire of them that fear him: he also will hear their cry, and will save them.
Keep working. I consider work a blessing and am grateful for the opportunities to do what God allows. Often, I imagine myself doing a different kind of work or project and I neglect the opportunities right before me. Diligently, I should pursue the work set before me, not wishing or desiring what God has set before others.
Proverbs 13:4 The soul of the sluggard desireth, and hath nothing: but the soul of the diligent shall be made fat.
What are you waiting for, friend? Has the tension of longing stretched across your heart, making you eager for the release of an answer? Bring your desires to God. Praise Him for what He has done. Jump wholeheartedly into what God has set before you. To praise and pray and work is joy and satisfaction in the waiting.
-Ashley
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Yesterday, the Lord gave one answer to prayer and waiting! But of course, there are other areas where I need to be content and joyful in waiting.
Recently, a friend gave the challenge to praise God for how He will answer a prayer, even though we don't know how it will work out. She pointed out that we shouldn't withhold our praise from God until He answers according to our ideas. The Lord's ways and timing are best!
Thank you for sharing from God's Word. This was a timely post.
Such good reminders!