I am a person who believes that timing is everything. I believe in divine destiny, but not that our lives are laid out every step in advance. Every choice we make has consequences and they go out like a ripples in a pond whether good or bad. When we invite God into the equation, I believe He does direct us and intervene in timing.

A conversation with friends recently reinforced this concept to me. Timing is everything. They met and married later than most, although both had been praying for God to bring someone special into their lives for years. She was relating the story to another person who was divorced but hopeful of redemption in her own life. My friend Brenda made a point about her own story. If she and Joe had met many years earlier, they would have more than likely have had their own children and not been looking to adopt. They both needed healing from past relationship wounds and even though they wanted someone to fall in love with forever, they were not ready. When their paths did cross, and a couple of years after their marriage, they signed up for foster care and ended up adopting a three-sibling group of children. Had the marriage been earlier or later, the likelihood of this event was not very high.

It certainly made sense to me. The children adore them and they love the children as their own. I can’t imagine what would have happened to those beautiful little ones if they had not found this loving home. And I can’t imagine Joe and Brenda’s life being complete without them. Surely in this case, timing was everything.

I can’t help wondering how often we let life’s frustrations and events come in and overwhelm us. I wonder how often people give up on a dream or lose hope in the future because things don’t happen they way they want them or when they want them. How many times does impatience rob people of life’s blessings?

The tragic thought to me is that people often “settle” for far less than God’s best just because they are not willing to put their trust in God and ask Him for divine direction and guidance in the timing of events. So, under their own jurisdiction, they make the wrong decisions and wonder why things don’t turn out better than they do. Sometimes they want love so badly, they say “yes” at the first opportunity, fearing it may be their last opportunity or only one. A person who is unhappy in a job situation may jump headfirst into another job only to find out that it is worse than the last one. Buying a house or car, making major purchases, and on an on have an element of timing in the decision.

The number of times I’ve heard people say, “I wish I had waited,” are too many for me to remember. This applies to life situations in all categories.

On the opposite end, people have opportunities presented to them that are the right ones, but they let fear paralyze them and the opportunity passes and can’t be gotten back. For example, a rejected proposal, passing over a good deal on a vehicle and having someone else swoop in and snatch a bargain, or thinking that a house better suited to the individual will come on the market while passing over the perfect one.

I truly believe that timing is one of the most important factors in our lives. We can’t see all of the eventualities or outcomes based on our decisions whether they are wrong or right. Personally, when I have a major decision to make, I pray about it, ask for God’s direction, and make my choice based on where the peace of mind and heart is. God’s timing is everything.

Reach longtime Enterprise columnist Judith Victoria Hensley at judith99@bellsouth.net or on Facebook. Check out her blog: One Step Beyond the Door.