PATIENCE is not my strong suit. I hate waiting... for anything. I'm so impatient I even finish people's sentences.  (How rude!)
My latest exercise in patience is waiting to get back on the tennis courts. I had stem cell repair on my knees last summer so had to wait for them to heal. Physcial therapy instead of doubles. Then, I wound up having to patch up a torn rotator cuff end of December. I'm still waiting, waiting to hit the courts. Why is this all taking so long?!
Because it is, that's why. And maybe that's an answer I need to learn to come to grips with as I continue to learn patience.
This appears to be a lesson I will still be working on clear to the end of my life. But it's one worth continuing to work on. How much better life is when we have patience with each other, patience with ourselves. And with God.
Ever pray for something and then wind up emotionally pacing, asking, "When am I going to see an answer?" I have. I still do. I'm big on getting things checked off my to-do list and I'm equally big on getting them checked off my prayer list. It seems much of my life has been one big "When?"... "When are these kids going to be old enough to go to school?!"... "When is my career going to get resurrected?" ... "When is that check going to get here?"...  "When is that relative I'm praying for going to get her/his act together?" .... And of course, the same question many of us asked during 2020: "When can we get back to normal?"
Perhaps God's answer to many of those questions would be, "When the time is right." ... "When you're ready." ... Or, when I'm so busy praying for Him to fix someone else: "When you get your act together." I think sometimes the answer to my questions is simply, "When you have learned to trust me enough to be patient." Oh, that again.
Patience with others, patience with myself when I mess up. Patience with God, which equals trust. I think mastering patience the biggest lesson we can learn. It is for me, anyway.
How about you? Is there an area where you need to learn patience?