Ordinary Time 
Pause
It’s an important part of your identity, going to the root of who you are. It speaks to where you come from and, to a large degree, where you are going.
So whose child are you?
Since God is our source, we are children of God, made to be loved and to thrive. In these next few moments, consider who has birthed you into the world and who is nurturing you along the way.
Listen
For in hope we were saved. Now hope that is seen is not hope. For who hopes for what is seen? But if we hope for what we do not see, we wait for it with patience.
Romans 8:24–25
Think
Is there something in your life that you are really hoping for? Maybe something more than what you will do with friends next weekend, but something really big; maybe even something that you’ve never told anyone about. Take a moment and name one thing before God that you hope will come to be soon.
When you are hoping and praying and waiting for God’s plans in your life to come to be, it can be so frustrating, can’t it? If you are anything like me, you often want what you want when you want it. But this is not how things work in the family of God. We have to remember we are God’s children, not the parent in charge. Sometimes we must wait for months or even years to understand God’s ways. Sometimes we never get what we are hoping for. Other times we receive something more amazing than we could have requested! But in patience, we wait.
Elizabeth Evans Hagan
Pray
Lord God, I have no idea what you are doing in my life sometimes and I hate waiting. But today I wait and trust that you are moving in ways that I can’t see right now. Amen.
Go
Strong, gentle children, God made you beautiful, gave you the wisdom and power you need; speak in the stillness all you are longing for; live out your calling to love and to lead.
From “Strong, Gentle Children” by Dan Damon
