June 18
Patience
The alarm clock screams at you at an ungodly hour. Your kids can’t find their socks, won’t look for them and expect you to know where they are. The milk and your husband have something in common … they are both spoiled. He’s upset because he wants to hear “snap, crackle and pop” while he reads the paper. If he mentions the milk one more time you’re fully prepared to give him “snap, crackle and pop!” It won’t be in his cereal bowl.
You look at your watch, “oh no late again.” You rush through your routine, get dressed as fast as you can. “I can’t be late again.” Oh No! Your last pair of hose just got a run. Isn’t that the way it always is? Dressed in your best jeans, you turn the key in the car. NOTHING! Your car won’t start. What a day, your hose runs and your car won’t!
Life is filled with challenging days, and we can’t do anything to change that fact, but we can do something about the way we react to them. Challenging days can be filled with life when we approach them with a dose of perspective. These days are part of our life’s tapestry. Woven between the days when everything seems to go right are the ones where everything seems to go wrong and the ones when things, well don’t seem to be going at all. All days are not created equal, but we can approach every day with an attitude of gratitude a humble heart and the patience of Job.
Patience isn’t just a virtue; it is what keeps us afloat when “we’re up to here” with life. It is the expression of faith that things will get better, or they won’t, but either way we’ll make it through the trial. It is the ultimate testimony that we trust in God to take care of things and we’re willing for Him to do it in His time.
Jim L. Wilson, Fresh Start Devotionals (Fresno, CA: Willow City Press, 2009).
Comments