I Needed Patience This Week To Tame My Skyrocketing Impatience
I phoned a friend to calm my frenzied mind.
I suffer from a chronic condition called impatience accompanied by a sidekick named frustration.
This affliction must be factory-installed because I noticed its glaring presence when I recently viewed an old video from my youth. In this grainy black and white reel I watched three-year-old me chasing my brother around the yard desperately trying to catch him. Since he is older and stronger, my attempts failed.
With my frustration level maxed out, I stopped running and stood still, my arms straight by my sides. If audio accompanied the video, I’m sure I’d hear a loud Humph!
Because of my easily frustrated nature, I’ve often prayed for patience. In my high school youth group class, our teacher once mentioned Amen roughly translates as So be it. When I first heard this, it was a magical moment. I’d always thought of Amen as the bookend to a prayer. I begin with Dear God and end with Amen. So be it now felt like waving a magic wand and what I asked for would appear.
Ta-da!
This caused me to pray more fervently for patience. But instead of feeling patient, life presented many challenges testing my patience — situations where my frustration rose…
