17 | Patient Perseverance

How is your patience-o-meter these days? Lately I've had more days in the red zone than I'd like to admit.  Care to join me in a prayer for patience?

Dear Lord,

You know I am a patient person when it comes to some things.  Tutoring and teaching.  Sewing and crafting.  Gardening.  You know I am not so patient when it comes to other things.  Coaching my own kids through homework hurdles.  Traffic.  Grocery check out lines.  Healing.  

I know you want me to be patient.  In all things.  Not begrudgingly, but with your loving patience.

God, one question:  are you the one who circulated the rumor that has been rolling around for a few centuries?  You know the one.  Good things come to those who wait.

Really?  Isn't technology pushing this kind of thinking into an archaic past?  In these days of instant messaging and constant contact, there is a cultural contagion of immediate gratification.  I certainly have been infected.  (When are you going to get off the computer, darling hubby?  I've got to check my emails right now!)  How gross.  Lord, insert your forgiveness here, please.

Okay, the relatively mature side of me recognizes that good things do happen to those who wait.  If I slow down and appreciate, I can count a few...

• Gazpacho chills on a hot summer day.
• Tempers calm.
• Bone marrow donors are discovered.
• Coffee brews.  Tea steeps.
• Tulips thaw, emerge, and bloom.
• Prayers get answered.
• God works wonders.

Thanks, Lord, for these slow blessings that force a patient wait.  Thanks especially for coffee in the morning, and the rich aroma that tickles my nose awake while I wake.  Thanks for that moment of pause and potency as I pour the first mug.  When I know that hot, steamy, strong and roasty caffeine is coming.  I know all will be right. 

Okay, God.  I know that the wait for a cup of coffee is not a very long exercise patience, even for this not-a-morning-mama.  But I want to have that same kind of caffeine-happy, hopeful, assured patience with the big stuff.  The limbo stuff that makes me loopy.  The hard stuff that hurts my heart.  The slow stuff that my soul suffers.  Because that is when something really good happens in the wait.  And that something is you.

If I can wait — calm and patient, positive and trusting — I know my faith will grow.  If I can release control and put my whole trust in you, you will make the waiting easier.  If I can step aside and let you work — in your time, your way — I can witness your wonders.  Lord, please form in me this calm and confident character, steeped in your strength.

And when that kind of patience seems too unattainable, remind me of your patience.  In your loving mercy, you wait for me.  To learn (so slow).  To grow (millimeter by millimeter).  To see in myself what you see in me (glimpse by hazy glimpse).  You wait and forgive, forgive and wait, and love the whole while through with your truly amazing grace. 

I'm going to hang on to your patient love when frustrated impatience tries to drag me down.  When the healing is too slow, the results too hard to see.  When the map for life's crossroads seems smeared and torn.  When the going gets tough.  Help me to endure the rough patches.  Help me to persevere.  To pursue through the severe.  Yes, that's it.  God, please give me the strength to pursue YOU through severe trials.

So do not throw away your confidence; it will be richly rewarded.  You need to persevere so that when you have done the will of God, you will receive what he has promised.

Hebrews 10:35-36 (NIV)

When I get anxious about the wait, I'm going to try and catch myself before I throw my crumpled confidence away.  I'm going to smooth it out, and read between the lines, focusing on your reward: peace, grace, walking with you into eternity. 

{ looky!  a free printable... for YOU!  from me! }

That is a blessed promise worth waiting for.  I'm going to frame it and focus on it until your answers come through loud and clear, which they always do, in your perfect timing.  Thank you, God, for your promise, for your answers.

Amen.

May you have the patience to wait for God's answers to the trials in your life, today and every day.