thee wilt teach me patience

I received a comment recently. A most undeserved one if I may say. This kind friend said that we had so much patience and love for our children. First of all I will focus only on my part of the “we,” as I feel that my better half is indeed very patient, and extremely loving. Second of all, I will only focus on the “patience” part of this oh so thoughtful declaration.

It has been quite captivating to see how God chooses to teach me patience. He has done it in the most unconventional of ways. I would think that He could teach me patience by making me wait longer in the check-out line at the store. Oh, wait I would have to GO to the store for that to happen. He could teach me patience by making me wait in traffic. He could teach me patience by… well any manner of other options come to mind.

But He chose two little kiddos to teach me patience. Through every day life with them I see that I am not taking to my lessons very well. I am just one of those students that every teacher loves to hate.

I can remember sitting in my fifth grade class and becoming so impatient with the teacher’s explanation of our next project that I turned to my friend and started talking, or to my paper and started drawing. Not sure which, since it happened so often.  Those times of impatience are held tight in my memory because that year the teacher handed out nice little plaques to the students in front of their parents. These plaques had a quote that each student was known for saying. To my utter embarrassment mine was, “What are we supposed to be doing?”

That year I did not turn out to be the class pet. I was like a hyper dog who never payed attention and who never stopped barking to listen to the commands. I turned red, walked forward to collect my plaque, and hoped no one noticed. I do not have fond memories of that teacher. I thought of her more as a witch with jet black hair.

Did that teach me to pay more attention? Nope. Lesson lost. So, God has continued to try and teach me, but I feel that I am still a horrible student. In the end though, I am so glad He is using two beautiful children and a great passion inside of me to teach me about that often dreaded word, “patience.”