Patience

Lord, please help me to have patience.

When the puppy chews a hole in my Spanish book, when the taxi music is so very loud, when the big lady in the market steps on my foot, when I find the kitchen full of ants after somebody left food out on the counter, when the tractor, the Jeep, and the generator are all still broken, when the customer service is terrible and three people jump in front of me in line, when the turkeys eat our garden, when the dates for clinic change again and again, when I can't find my watch or my waterbottle, when the cat wakes me up at 3:00 am, biting my hair, when we have yet another pleading mother, returning to the pharmacy to beg for more vitamins, please, Lord, help me.

I know better than to get upset over these little things. I know better than to keep thinking of myself. I know better, but still I am so frustrated, all ruffled up. I'm the farthest thing from patient that there is.

But because you say, "Be still, and know that I am God," I will be still. Because you tell me to "Wait for the Lord, be strong and take heart, and wait upon the Lord," I will wait. I will trust you.

I know you are yearning for me. That it's hard for you to have patience with me, your stumbling and confused daughter. I know you have every right to be frustrated when I step on your toes and when I break down, and when I fall asleep when I'm talking to you.

But you are patient. You love me anyway. I want to sit at your feet, and learn from you. Fill me with your love and your patience, that somehow, in some way, others can see you in me.

Amen.

Psalm 46:10, Psalm 27:14