Today I'm going to talk about patience, what it has done in my life and how God has been teaching me. If there is one lesson God wants me to get right in this world, it's patience. Patience, patience, patience. I must say, it gets frustrating at times and I get impatient learning about patience (ironic I know, haha). However, through all these little lessons in my life, I hope you have a better understanding of what it means to be patient and why you should listen to God's tugs on your life.
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I come from a family of three siblings, with me being the oldest. My sister is a year and a half younger than me and my brother is 5 years younger. That alone should be the biggest clue that God wants me to learn patience. From a very young age, I realized that I am naturally not very patient. At all. Ever. I am the kind of person that wants it done now and needs to have things as soon as possible. I did not enjoy waiting for anything!
According to my parents, my little toddler self loathed nap time. I would much rather have poked the ground with sticks (at least that was productive right? *insert sarcasm font here*). It's just naturally who I am. In saying that, it doesn't mean it can't change or be refocused.
In life, we have to make hard decisions. It's easier for us to just do what feels right to our nature and then be done with it. People can change. For those of you that know me really well, I seem extroverted and very outgoing. This is true...for the most part. When I'm in a room with absolutely no one I know, it takes a lot of effort for me to go up and introduce myself or integrate myself into a conversation with strangers. I haven't always been able to do that, but I realized one day that it wasn't really that big of a deal and put in the effort to change that about myself.
To provide another example, I used to have problems with my anger. I would often let things get out of line, and I would yell and just be a jerk to my younger siblings. Especially when it came to competition. However, I saw that that was not a very good way to live, so I changed it. The anger still sometimes creeps up inside of me, but I've learned how to control it and it's not an issue anymore.
Before I get back to patience I want to add a little note here. People often think, "Oh, I'm too old to change anything about myself, so I'm pretty much stuck with what you see." I can tell you that you are simply lying to yourself. You can change if you want to, it's going to be hard, but that doesn't mean it's impossible.
Are you introverted? You don't have to be if you don't want to.
Do you have anger issues? I've come to terms with mine, so can you.
Do you handle conflict very badly? Ask for advice on how to change.
It's possible
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Anyways, back to patience.
Throughout my entire life, God has been teaching me patience. I swear, if there is one lesson He wants me to be good at, it's patience.
I know this is going to sound cheesy, but where I drew my biggest lesson was from girls. Especially in high school, I wanted so badly to have a girlfriend. I thought I saw so many wonderful, awesome relationships through out high school and I wanted to have one for my own. The catch was that I wasn't being patient. Not only did I not realize that 99% of those relationships I saw are no longer in existence today, but they also ended up scaring most of the people involved.
Then there was this girl. Oh man, I thought I had it made. She asked me to Sadie Hawkins dance junior year of high school and I finally thought my waiting was over!!! I had found the one for me! God says, "Be patient." But that wouldn't do it for me, I wanted a relationship and I wanted it right then. So, we ended up talking that summer, and I thought things were going well, but long story short, it didn't work out. It was a tough time in my life because I had fooled myself into believing I'd learned my lesson on patience and she was my reward. Let me tell you, that is the completely wrong mindset.
Then I got to college, and it doesn't get any easier, trust me. I saw so many pretty girls during the first week of school, and I told God, "I'm going to find my future wife soon, I just know it!!!" Oh my naive little self. Funny to think that was only 6 months ago. Again, my impatience kicked right back in, slammed me in face and all I could do was run back to God.
Finally, one day it all clicked and I just let God take control. I was done being impatient. I was done investing so much of my time searching for the perfect girl. I just needed to let Him lead. And guess what? Not more than a week later I started hanging out with my wonderful soon-to-be girlfriend. I wasn't pursuing, she wasn't pursuing, we just started getting to know each other.
Now this is not to say that if you give God control, He's immediately going to give you what you've been wanting, it could take years for what you want to happen. I am saying though that giving certain aspects of your life over to Him are worth it.
Once we started dating I thought I had learn patience in and out. I mean I had waited almost 19 years for this to happen. That's my entire life we're talking here! But I realize now, patience is still being taught to me. I'm learning more and more what real patience is like every day. So, its not over, but I find that encouraging. God wants me to be good at something. James 1:4 says "Perseverance must finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything." I find it so encouraging that the God of the universe wants me to be mature and complete. He doesn't want me to lack anything. How I like to put it, He wants me to be awesome. That my friends, is well....awesome!
Thank you for reading yet another one of my blogs, and I hope you've enjoyed this one!
Keep being awesome! See you next week.
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Romans 12:12 "Be joyful in hope, patient in affliction, faithful in prayer."
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