Patience

Now that you have seen a glimpse of my life as manifested in the picture below, I might as well go ahead and share with you some recent thoughts that have gone through my head when faced with n*ked babies running around a messy house.

Besides thinking that I really don't know what I'm doing, I also see my great need for patience. Normally, patience makes me think of that deep breath you take to get through an irritating moment, like NOT blowing the horn while you are waiting for that great parking space you COULD turn into if only the clueless driver of the neighboring vehicle would SHUT her door. I'm 29 weeks pregnant with a 2 and 3 year old in tow... I NEED a great parking space =)

In a matter of about 30 seconds, the car door was shut, I got the space, and life moved on with my testimony in tact. Super!

I'm not so concerned about exercising patience for those 30 second irritations that will probably never come up again with people I will never see again. What I'm having a hard time with is patience towards the trials that "return with each returning day" (line from Stepping Heavenward). Toddler eating habits, baths that need to be given and stories that need to be read when I'm ready to collapse, laundry that refuses to put itself away, children who always find SOMETHING to get into or break or jump on when we are visiting in someone's home, feeling limited in my ministry toward others because of this little thing called a language barrier, a 3 year old who insists her PJ's match, sibling rivalry, sibling rivalry, sibling rivalry.

So why have these daily trials reminded me of my need for patience? All of the above simply reveal selfishness in my heart and my lack of faith in God to bring on a harvest of blessings from all the scattered sacrifices sown throughout the day. Life is a process of sowing and reaping. If you don't sow, then you won't reap. If you sow to the flesh, then you reap to the flesh corruption. In this particular season of life I feel like I do alot of sowing, but I'm still seeing dirt. The temptation to think that nothing is happening and nothing is going to happen is always there. That's why I need patience. I need to patiently wait for God's blessing on my work. I need to keep pulling weeds even if it looks like I'm just keeping the dirt looking pretty. I need to water, even though those little chutes rising from the ground don't have a trace of fruit on them. I need to keep working and not neglect my field.

I sure wish I could hand you a warm slice of banana bread along with this post. Sometimes I think that if these issues are close to my heart, they must also be touching the lives of my friends who are in a similar season of life, so I write this to be an encouragement to you as you have been to me through your posts and musings

Romans 5:3
And not only so, but we glory in tribulations also: knowing that tribulation worketh patience;


Romans 5:4
And patience, experience; and experience, hope:


Romans 8:25
But if we hope for that we see not, then do we with patience wait for it.


Romans 15:4
For whatsoever things were written aforetime were written for our learning, that we through patience and comfort of the scriptures might have hope.


Romans 15:5
Now the God of patience and consolation grant you to be likeminded one toward another according to Christ Jesus:


2 Corinthians 6:4
But in all things approving ourselves as the ministers of God, in much patience, in afflictions, in necessities, in distresses,


Colossians 1:11
Strengthened with all might, according to his glorious power, unto all patience and longsuffering with joyfulness;


1 Thessalonians 1:3
Remembering without ceasing your work of faith, and labour of love, and patience of hope in our Lord Jesus Christ, in the sight of God and our Father;


2 Thessalonians 1:4
So that we ourselves glory in you in the churches of God for your patience and faith in all your persecutions and tribulations that ye endure :


1 Timothy 6:11
But thou, O man of God, flee these things; and follow after righteousness, godliness, faith, love, patience, meekness.

Titus 2:2
That the aged men be sober, grave, temperate, sound in faith, in charity, in patience.


Hebrews 6:12
That ye be not slothful, but followers of them who through faith and patience inherit the promises.


Hebrews 10:36
For ye have need of patience, that, after ye have done the will of God, ye might receive the promise.


Hebrews 12:1
Wherefore seeing we also are compassed about with so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which doth so easily beset us, and let us run with patience the race that is set before us,


James 1:3
Knowing this, that the trying of your faith worketh patience.


James 1:4
But let patience have her perfect work, that ye may be perfect and entire, wanting nothing .


James 5:7
Be patient therefore, brethren, unto the coming of the Lord. Behold , the husbandman waiteth for the precious fruit of the earth, and hath long patience for it, until he receive the early and latter rain.


James 5:10
Take , my brethren, the prophets, who have spoken in the name of the Lord, for an example of suffering affliction, and of patience.


James 5:11
Behold , we count them happy which endure . Ye have heard of the patience of Job, and have seen the end of the Lord; that the Lord is very pitiful, and of tender mercy.


2 Peter 1:6
And to knowledge temperance; and to temperance patience; and to patience godliness;

Revelation 2:2

I know thy works, and thy labour, and thy patience, and how thou canst not bear them which are evil: and thou hast tried them which say they are apostles, and are not, and hast found them liars:


Revelation 2:3
And hast borne , and hast patience, and for my name's sake hast laboured , and hast not fainted .


Revelation 2:19
I know thy works, and charity, and service, and faith, and thy patience, and thy works; and the last to be more than the first.