patience

Patience seems to be the topic for my life this week.

Right now, patience is one of the hardest things for Suzy to understand. When she asks for milk, she doesn't just ask once. She bombards you with a desperate face, saying "milk milk milk milk milk milk milk!" It's really cute. But tough if you can't give it to her in that moment.

And maybe i'm not always the most patient person myself. I am thankful that Elvis has taught me a lot about patience, through his example. The other night, he was not able to go to sleep until about 1:30 am because he was helping a friend going through a rough time. Then, at 2:00 am, Suzy woke up for some strange reason, ready to play. With Elvis, no one else.

Until 5:30 am. For one night, we remembered what having a newborn was like!

I started freaking out because Elvis had not slept at all hardly and had to wake up at 6:30am, and i asked him (very impatiently) what in the world we were going to do, and he (very patiently) said we were going to calm down and that he would be happy to spend the extra time with Suzy. Wow! What patience!


Opportunities to practice patience just keep popping up. For example, my work has stopped doing direct deposit for my pay check, which means i have to cash a check every 2 weeks. While that may sound harmless enough for those of you living in the US, it's not as easy as it sounds here. Since I don't have an account at the bank where they write the check from, i can't just deposit it into my own bank account. I have to go to the bank and wait 1-2 hours every 2 weeks so that i can cash my check. 1 hour if it is not a pay day, 2hours+ if it is a pay day. The day before vacation last week, the bank line was out of the bank, down the stairs, and wrapped around the block. This calls for extreme patience.

Scene two: I went to the post office last week to mail a little bday package to my mom, and after waiting in line for a while, it's finally my turn. I ask for an envelope to send the stuff, and they tell me that they're sorry, they don't sell envelopes. What?! You can't buy an envelope at a post office? So, I had to go to the cyber cafe nearby, buy an envelope (because it makes a lot more sense for a cyber cafe to sell envelopes), then go back to the post office and get back in line. arg.

Scene 3: Last week, my job was nice enough to take us on a little trip outside of the city. While it was a nice idea, it turned into 6 hours on a hot, bumpy, humid school bus. Patience please!

Scene 4: I'm also learning that practicing patience with real people, people you don't understand what their problem is, people that are perhaps being tried with patience issues in their own lives....that is sometimes harder than just waiting in line.

However, it is also so much more rewarding to practice patience, practice love, practice grace, practice forgiveness with those people. Much more tiring, but also much more beneficial and necessary than cashing a paycheck or mailing a package.

I heard a great sermon at Brian and Kelly's church when i was in Pasadena last month about being like a soldier, athlete, and farmer (from 2 Timothy), and i gave the same challenge to the teachers at school this past week in a devotional. All of those jobs require extreme patience....especially a farmer! No one is cheering him on, and there he is day in and day out, working patiently, waiting with faith that those little seeds he planted will sprout and provide food for his family. That's not something that happens overnight. Unless if you have a Chia pet. That might grow a little faster.

Today, i have a dentist appointment and i have a feeling it will be another great opportunity to practice patience.

We have also been waiting (somewhat) patiently for an answer to a huge prayer request, and we have some very important dates coming up that will hopefully offer us an answer. Sorry for being so vague right now...email me personally if you would like!

So, you can pray for us specifically this Friday, Aug 19th and next Friday, Aug 26th.

Thanks!