The Grin Gal’s Guide to Waiting

A life on hold isn’t a life delayed.

It’s simply not time yet.

Do you feel as if your “next” is postponed or delayed? Is a circumstance draining your joy? You can find peace and contentment while you wait for life to improve.

As you read Your Life on Hold, be on the lookout to see God’s hand in the wait as much as in the go. You will gain new tools to make the most of today while waiting for the hopes of tomorrow to be fulfilled.

In Your Life on Hold, Kathy shares the nuggets mined from her own back-to-back-to-back life on hold challenges. She admits to frustrating emotions and reveals lessons learned during the wait.

Each short chapter gives a bit of inspiration, a heartwarming or funny real-life story, snarky confessions, a little motivation, and some empathy. You’ll see what the Bible says about enduring the wait.

The chapter section called “During the PAUSE” includes a prayer to PRAY when you don’t know what to pray, an ADJUSTMENT to make, an action to UNDERTAKE, something to SEEK, and a situation to EVALUATE.

Your Life on Hold is designed for distracted, overwhelmed Christ followers. Light enough to absorb, but deep enough to impact you as it delivers comfort and inspires a change.

Ideal on your own or with a group.

Delays are the beginning of grand adventures.

Don’t clutter the journey with wondering what-ifs

when you could be experiencing a new kind of faith!

Buy the book at Amazon

Endorsements

Your Life on Hold will inspire anyone sitting in life’s waiting room. It reminds me again of why we think of Kathy as God’s grin gal! I was drawn into the topic because I’ve had my own on-hold moments when it seemed like life wasn’t taking me where I wanted to go. If you’re feeling stuck or frustrated by delays not of your own doing, the book will help you hold on during the on-hold moments. Kathy shows how God adds meaning to our lives in the meantime while we wait for our “next” to happen. I especially like the PAUSE acronym and steps at the end of each chapter. I can’t wait for my girlfriends to get a hold of this book!

–Tara Royer Steele, author of Eat. Pie. Love. Owner of Royers Pie Haven and All Things Acres, gatherer of people and Jesus over pie. tararoyersteele.com

Kathy Carlton Willis has done it again with her newest resource, Your Life on Hold. She gently challenges Christians to lean in hard to our heavenly Father when we are faced with difficulties. A seasoned sufferer herself, Kathy shares her own struggles (and they are daunting, to be sure) and how she finds comfort and strength in the truths of God’s Word. The author guides readers to share their points of pain with the Lord and then implement the PAUSE method . . . read it to discover how powerful these action steps are. Kathy’s book is a keeper and a repeat read. Buy one for yourself and for your family and friends who are struggling in their own waiting rooms.

–Michele Howe, reviewer, columnist, author of 28 books. Michele’s newest release is Grace & Gratitude for Everyday Life. michelehowe.wordpress.com

Who enjoys waiting? Nobody I know! What if someone offered a strategy to make those times productive, even meaningful? In Your Life on Hold, Kathy encourages a change of perspective—believing God has a purpose in what seems a delay, trusting him to use it for his greater good, and making the most of those baffling stretches when nothing seems to be happening. She shares the hard-learned truth that when we see waiting as a gift, it allows us to grow. Each chapter ends with suggestions for handling the pause: Pray, Adjust, Undertake, Seek, Evaluate. Kathy writes, “What we learn during the pause is as productive as what we do in the remainder of the journey.” If you’re feeling stuck, this book will renew your hope and ignite a spirit of adventure!

–Dianne Barker, speaker, radio host, multi-book author, including I Don’t Chase the Garbage Truck down the Street in My Bathrobe Anymore! diannebarker.com

In Your Life on Hold, Kathy Carlton Willis has written a practical, spiritual guide on waiting. With transparency and humor, she offers personal and biblical examples of overwhelming situations when waiting can leave us wondering what God is doing. Kathy also uses biblical truths and powerful principles to help us renew our joy and purpose during any life pause. Kathy presents not platitudes but positive attitudes that will encourage you to embrace the wait and bring you full circle to the bigness of God.

–Rebecca Barlow Jordan, bestselling inspirational author of 13 books, including award-winning Day-votions® with Your Faithful Father, rebeccabarlowjordan.com

Your Life on Hold offers encouragement for those sitting in life’s waiting room. If you’re feeling stuck in a story you didn’t choose, you know the pain and impatience of waiting for it to all work out. Author Kathy Carlton Willis has been there and is still there—experiencing a revolving door of waiting rooms! With her trademark humor and biblical insights, she will speak hope into your struggle. Rest in God’s presence and peace as you wait.

–Michelle Diercks, Bible teacher, speaker, host of the Peace in His Presence podcast, author of Promised Rest: Finding Peace in God’s Presence. michellediercks.com

I’ve known Kathy for years and can attest that she is well-versed in living a life on hold. Because God doesn’t waste anything, we are blessed with this excellent resource for individual use or group study. Kathy’s writing is real and relatable. You’ll understand right away that she gets it. Not only does her book offer inspiration, encouragement, and empathy, but it’s also loaded with helpful ideas and aha! moments. And speaking of aha! moments . . . after spending a few moments with Kathy, you’ll come away realizing that God can actually use those not-so-fun pauses in life for your good and the good of others. If you’re tired of waiting, waiting, waiting, I highly recommend you read Your Life on Hold.

–Twila Belk (aka The Gotta Tell Somebody Gal), writer, speaker, author of Raindrops from Heaven and The Power to Be. gottatellsomebody.com

Kathy’s new book, Your Life on Hold, reminds me of how God has been here in all my painful yet hopeful waiting times, just as surely as when I am actively going and doing. Learning that life happens along the journey more than at the destination remains an ongoing process. I related to the author’s frustrations, questions, and emotions. I’ve wandered and wondered through similar valleys, especially with several life-threatening conditions that completely stalled my ability to live normally. Kathy’s comforting and inspiring words brought me to tears, to a renewed sense of hope, and ultimately into a closer walk with my Lord. Waiting can be a wonderful station along this journey of life, especially when he is with us in the wait.

–Jill Marie Thomas, business owner, teacher, speaker, multi-book author including Redemption Rental Series. jillmariethomas.com

Enduring a season of waiting is difficult. We want answers. We’ve become so accustomed to quick . . . fast . . . now that many of our patience muscles have lost their flexibility. Within the pages of Kathy’s book, Your Life on Hold, you will find wonderful lessons that help rebuild that muscle through exercise again. Kathy’s wisdom, insight, and complete vulnerability provide her readers with scriptural, relatable, and sometimes even giggle-worthy connection. (I found something within every chapter I could relate to!) Perhaps if we were to follow her advice to PAUSE, we would more eagerly embrace our seasons of waiting because it is within the pause that God reveals more of himself to us.

–Kolleen Lucariello, author of #beYOU: Change Your Identity One Letter at a Time and co-director of Activ8Her.Inc. speakkolleen.com

Kathy Carlton Willis has penned a book just for me. Her words of comfort for the in-between time of waiting on God’s timing provide a soothing balm for the weary heart. Your Life on Hold coaches me on how to be still in God’s waiting room when I would rather rush his response. And Kathy provides practical steps for turning the wait into a productive lesson in patience, perseverance, and pursuing God. This book is a hands-on resource for all who wonder if God hears when life comes to a halt.

–Sally Ferguson, reviewer, caregiver, encourager, pastor’s wife, women’s ministry leader, and author of How to Plan a Women’s Retreat Playbook. sallyferguson.net

Challenged by her own waiting room situations, Kathy Carlton Willis shares the prescription for grin-gal living, even when the season is long, uncertain, or unfair. Your Life on Hold encompasses so many of the scenarios I have found myself impatiently waiting through. Kathy covers them all with her grin-gal style of humor, encouragement, and biblical study. She doesn’t want you to just survive the waiting experience—she wants you to thrive while learning and growing in your walk with God. Consider her your personal cheerleader as you read through each chapter—chapters that will leave you nodding your head in agreement. As an expert waiter, she’s used moment after moment—otherwise wasted in the waiting room—and reclaimed them for God’s purpose.

–Gina Stinson, teacher, pastor’s wife, devotional storyteller, and author of Reclaimed: The Stories of Rescued Moments and Days. ginastinson.com

I’ve seen Kathy brave several waiting-room seasons in her life and still radiate God’s joy through that effervescent grin. Your Life on Hold addresses those life-on-pause situations through a biblical lens while offering practical application. You’ll laugh out loud at her honest inner monologue, relate to ALL the feelings of being on hold, and be inspired to find meaningful moments during the wait. Read the book on your own or join up with a friend or small group. Waiting is always better when shared with fellow waiters.

 –Tammy Anderud, administration pastor, Praise Church, adoptive mom, and former director of surgical nursing

Using true-to-form wit and joy, Kathy brings enlightenment to the subject that my client widows and I struggle with daily—life on hold. We wanna “hate the wait.” By revealing her humanness, Kathy encourages us to give ourselves grace when our thoughts seem self-centered and demanding. She shines a light on a re-frame from God’s Word that stirs the soul to see his wisdom. She gently prods us to be open to the possibility that there just might be another perspective, that we might grow during the process, and it will get better than this. Life’s circumstances don’t have to dictate our emotional life. Your Life on Hold demonstrates how when we choose the joy of the Lord versus defaulting to our human reactions, we can experience peace that surpasses our own understanding.

–Pam Stoddard, life coach and widow survivor, lifelong joy chaser, owner and coach of Choosing Joy after Grief and Loss coaching programs. pamstoddard.com