32 / 52 – Though It Linger
For those of you who have heard our story before, you know that the Lord told me we were going to be missionaries to Ireland before He told Branden. In fact, God said He would withhold His word from Branden for a season. When I asked God WHY? He said it was to teach us (sounds like Jesus, right?). Apparently I needed to learn how to BE QUIET! and to see that the Lord is faithful, able to do everything He says. Branden needed to learn to trust Jesus in a different way too, to believe God would take care of our family and to be open to new and seemingly impossible things He would call us to. The Lord would take us through and teach us, but the season that came was incredibly hard on our marriage and family.
I remember days, weeks, months of discouragement, tension and confusion. I knew the Lord had told me we were going to Ireland, but my husband was completely against it. The season was lonely. Jesus would continue to tell me things, precious promises about our future. But I couldn’t share them with my husband. I would have to wait. God was doing a good, hard work, and that would take time. That loneliness was from Him, which meant I could trust it, but it was still incredibly painful.
God was teaching me that being the wife He was calling me to be, that helping my husband was accomplished in prayer and respect rather than always demanding telling him what I thought we should do, even if it was God’s will (surprise!) I needed to give Branden room to hear the Lord, which also meant giving him room to make mistakes. But if Jesus had said something to me, and Jesus is faithful, then I had to believe He would accomplish it, His way. In His perfect time, God told Branden for Himself, that He was calling us to the mission field. And He showed me that He was completely faithful and good.
In that long season of learning to trust and wait on the Lord, God gave me this verse:
