What To Do In The Waiting
How to maximize your potential while preparing for motherhood.
We all know that feeling of being at the edge of your seat, holding your breath and almost closing your eyes – while your body riddles with anxiety and sweat begins to form in the palms of your hands. Yes, this may sound like a borderline heart attack or some other form of grave impending danger, but this is the monthly ritual of every woman while waiting for two lines to appear on an almost cruel device created to drive panic into the hearts and minds of every potential mother. What’s even more nerve wracking is the dreaded two week wait between ovulation and possible conception. But what about that time spent waiting? Will we ever get it back? Whether it was one month or months on end of waiting is it worth the stress we put on our minds and body, waiting on something we ultimately could not control? The answer is no. Stress or any form of anxiety is never great for our body, especially when we are trying to conceive.
But what about more than stress? What about our spiritual wellbeing and our overall physical well-being? Our family life and our time with our partner? The bible actually gives us clear instructions for waiting – “Wait on the Lord: be of good courage and he shall strengthen thine heart: wait, I say on the Lord (Psalm 27:14).” So we can see from this passage that God is with us, to strengthen us during our season of waiting, we are just expected to be bold and courageous, knowing and believing that our time and season will come in all areas, including motherhood.
Let’s keep in mind, we all have our appointed time for God’s perfect will to be realized in our life. So why worry when we know that God has great plans for us and He actually hears our prayers. Exodus 14:14 tells us “the Lord will fight for you: you need only to be still.” We are expected to act in faith, knowing that the Lord is on our side. We do not need to assist God in any of His acts or miracles, we are to ask in prayer and believe that it is already done.
Now with this in mind, there are a multitude of things we can actively do to prepare ourselves to receive this amazing blessing of motherhood, because, again, God will fulfill his promise to us, we just have to be in the position to receive it – “and all these blessings shall come upon you and overtake you, if you obey the voice of the Lord your God (Deuteronomy 28:2).”
First, as we all know, our body is the temple of the Holy Spirit (1 Corinthians 6:19-20) so during this time of waiting to conceive especially, our physical health should be a priority. Taking the time to eat healthy, work out and incorporating essential vitamins in our diet should be a priority. This should be integrated into our way of life so that it is never viewed as a burden but as part of our well-being. Also if there are any check ups at our physician that needs to take place, we should start making those appointments so that if we have any areas that need addressing, these can be done sooner rather than later. God has ideally placed doctors and physicians to assist us with meeting health goals while we are here on earth. Essentially, during this time of preparing to conceive we would not want to intentionally do anything that would be counter productive.
Additionally, getting great rest and sleep as well as minimizing stress would also be helpful. God promised us sweet sleep (Proverbs 3:24) and we should take advantage of that promise – being careful not to allow the cares of the world to overtake us or cause us to worry. We should take time to give our problems and concerns to God so that he can address them, on our behalf. Ultimately, we should commit to a strong and devoted prayer life during this time and always. This will eliminate stress as the Bible instructs us to “cast all your anxiety on him because he cares for you (1 Peter 5:7).” This would help as we struggle with worry in our everyday problems, relational problems and even as we go through our individual conception journeys. No journey looks the same, but we all have our own concerns in this area. God knows each of our areas of need and the Bible tells us that before we call he has answered and while we are yet speaking he will hear (Isaiah 65:24). This should comfort us as we go through our prayer life. Knowing that stress is not our portion – that we have a God who intimately knows our deepest thoughts and desires and can address each one of them accordingly.
Finally, another great use of our time as we go through our conception process is getting involved in God’s work and seeking to find His purpose for your life. While we can become preoccupied with the trying to conceive process, God may be using it to draw us closer to him or to use your testimony or your life as a way to bless others. As we see in 2 Peter 3:9 “The Lord is not slow in keeping his promise, as some understand slowness. Instead he is patient with you, not wanting anyone to perish, but everyone to come to repentance.” We should feel honored that God may be using our life to be a blessing to someone else or even ourselves. Or even think of what a great example and blessing we will even be as the best version of ourselves when we welcome that new life into the world!
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