Espera, Mi Hija
I love words and digging into them. I don’t have the greatest vocabulary, and I am embarrassed for us as a culture when I read or listen to a book written a hundred years ago. Would you agree that we have to work harder to understand the vocabulary in the classics? (Okay, we can take up that subject in another post.)
I enjoy “uncovering” aspects of words through their definitions. I especially love when a word in another language gives me insight into our English words, for example esperar.
I began to study and love the Spanish language when I was young. Daddy wanted me to learn many things that he never got a chance to. He had to drop out of school after the 8th grade and get a job to help support the family of 13. When the opportunity arose for me to learn a little Spanish in an elementary after-school class, he encouraged me.
Daddy loved telling the story of his father, Jacob, who learned to speak Spanish growing up in east Texas. Grandpa worked as a cowboy and a Texas Ranger after the Civil War before he married my grandmother and began a family. Daddy was very proud of his heritage, and he wanted me to be bilingual like his father.
I’m grateful for the opportunities to learn another language, especially one that enables me to communicate with many in our community and in our travels. But, every time we return to a Spanish-speaking area I have to jump start my bilingual brain that I use primarily on vacations.
Recently Gary asked me if espera meant “wait” or “hope for.” I reminded him that it meant both, and that’s when my curiosity took over.
Hoping and waiting are two verbs that mean very different things. Children wait for Christmas morning, and they hope for the gifts they asked Santa Claus for. Adults wait for vacation and hope for good weather during the time off.
But, are they related? Do we wait in hope or with hope?
Is the waiting easier if we hold onto hope? In Jesus the answer is, “YES!” When we trust God for His best for us we can have peace and the patience He provides.
What are you waiting for, daughter and sister? I challenge you to intentionally consider what you might be impatient about at this time in your life and where you would like more hope in the waiting. Prayerfully ask yourself:
Is it healing for yourself or a loved one?
Is it a change of circumstances that seem too stressful?
Is it a longing to see a family member saved?
No matter what it is today
…or tomorrow
…our reliance on God’s goodness and sovereignty (supreme power and authority) in all things will make the waiting worth it.
We are saved by trusting. And trusting means looking forward to getting something we don’t yet have—for a man who already has something doesn’t need to hope and trust that he will get it. But if we must keep trusting God for something that hasn’t happened yet, it teaches us to wait patiently and confidently.
And in the same way—by our faith—the Holy Spirit helps us with our daily problems and in our praying. For we don’t even know what we should pray for nor how to pray as we should, but the Holy Spirit prays for us with such feeling that it cannot be expressed in words. And the Father who knows all hearts knows, of course, what the Spirit is saying as he pleads for us in harmony with God’s own will. And we know that all that happens to us is working for our good if we love God and are fitting into his plans. – Romans 8:24-28 (TLB)
GOD IS GOOD, ALL THE TIME!
