Patience

I needed a break today… in a bad way… like run out the door and find a small hole to crawl into bad… so I did the next best thing… I distracted myself. I took a sip of my Fresca, check in on my peanut M&M supply (yep…still there!), flipped through my journal and landed on this scripture.

Yet even now, says the Lord,
return to me with all your heart,
with fasting, with weeping, and with mourning;
rend your hearts and not your clothing.
Return to the Lord, your God,
for he is gracious and merciful,
slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love,
and relents from punishing.
- Joel 2:12-13

How about that! God is slow to anger, gracious and merciful. Oh how I long to be more Godly in my ways. There are times when life just gets going so quickly and items on our task list just grow bigger and out of our control. Why is it that the first reaction when these things happen is “why me?”

It seems so easy to fall in to the “this junk keeps coming” mood. Why is it not that easy to take a deep breath and pray for help?

I’m reminded of “Evan Almighty” when God is talking to Joan and says, “Let me ask you something. If someone prays for patience, you think God gives them patience? Or does he give them the opportunity to be patient? If he prayed for courage, does God give him courage, or does he give him opportunities to be courageous? If someone prayed for the family to be closer, do you think God zaps them with warm fuzzy feelings, or does he give them opportunities to love each other?”

This is the time to be grateful for opportunities to be patient, for opportunities to be slow to anger, gracious and merciful. And, this is the time to be grateful that when I’m not, God loves me anyway.