Dec 03 2008
Patience is a virtue
I guess I’m not a virtuous person because I’m one of the most impatient people I know. I have never been one to enjoy the anticipation of the arrival of a big event or to sit back and enjoy life’s journey.
You would think that as I approach the 4-0 that I would have a better handle on my impatience. Plus a “surprise baby” should have also taught me a thing or two about “going with the flow” - but I still struggle with it immensely.
Some examples of my impatience:
When I formulate a new major plan of action, I cringe at the notion of waiting for external factors to fall into place.
The fastest cycle on my dishwasher (which goes start to finish in just 24 minutes) is not fast enough for me.
Waiting for my kettle to heat up for some coffee is painful each morning.
Sitting at a traffic light trying to get my kids to Taekwondo class on Friday seems to take an eternity.
The 45 minutes that I leave the haircolor on my gray hairs frustrates me to no end. I’m too nervous to do anything while the color is on my hair for fear it will drip and stain the floor or furniture, etc. So, those minutes feel enormously long and wasted too.
Even the super early pregnancy tests that tell you before you have missed a period are not good enough in my book - I think they should be able to tell you from the very beginning whether you are having a boy or girl. Waiting for that mid-pregnancy ultrasound to find out the baby’s gender was excrutiatingly painful for me in all 3 of my pregnancies. (I have NO IDEA how some of my friends have waited until their babies were born to find out the gender.) {Sidenote to family and friends who may be reading this - I am NOT expecting - I just still think about how nice it would have been to know the gender of my kids from the beginning.}
I often mumble angry words at my desktop computer as I wait for it to boot up each morning. (It’s 3 years old now, so I’m sure Dell would laugh at it and tell me it’s time to upgrade.)
I sometimes find myself daydreaming about God sharing his plan for my life with me in a very undeniable way - such as an email direct from heaven or a little piece of paper that shoots out of my belly button. It’s just very hard to “wait” for his answer to arrive - his timetable is often not in line with mine.
Unfortunately, my children - especially my daughter - seem to have inherited my lack of patience. So, my impatience dealing with their impatience is often quite the challenge. My promises of, “In a minute,” “In a few minutes,” or “Later” are often met with grumblings, repeated requests and counter-remarks. In fact, my daughter has tapped me on the shoulder no fewer than 10 times while I type this blog entry - she is “patiently” waiting to make some Christmas cookies with me.
