Blackwater
12-31-2016, 02:30 PM
If there's one trait I think of when I think of God, it has to be patience. He's SO very patient with us, even when we are willful. Being God over us humans MUST be like trying to herd cats! I can't even really imagine it myself.
And patience is probably the rarest commodity in our world today. Everything and everybody seems to always be in a hurry. And in their haste, they overlook and totally miss SO much in this life! I told an 80 yr. old lady once that I knew she was a Christian when I first laid eyes on her. She asked how I could possibly know a thing like that. I smiled, and told her it was the look in her eyes - a searching, inquisitive and totally unafraid look, and in her gait and manner - casual, progressive and in no big hurry. I told her that the look in her eyes told me that she was looking all about, but what she was seeing was beyond the mere physicality of it all. It just shone through so clearly it couldn't be missed. Her eyebrows rose, and she seemed impressed, but not fully convinced, but at least accepted that possibility.
And she has always proven to be one of the calmest and most patient people I think I've ever known, but she's always been very much that way. She had a heart defect as a child, and the docs told her Mom she'd probably not last through her teen years. Her Mom was devastated! And she prayed every night of her life that God would spare this wonderful woman. And God granted that prayer. She recently had some surgery in Savannah, and flew through it like a hot knife through butter. Not one complication of any sort. Her whole life has been a testament to the power and glory of the Lord and His power to heal and be merciful and extend His grace to us when we simply ask for it. What a wonderful story her whole life is!
And it has, I think, helped her become one of the most patient, confident and truly loving people on the face of our God's green earth! She's a true wonder to more willful types like myself!
So it is, that with a new leader for our nation, that one of the things I'll be praying for most earnestly for myself in the coming year is simple patience. If we have patience, we slow down, and if we slow down, we CAN give ourselves the simple time and blessing to simply NOTICE things we have probably been glossing over or ignoring for years and years. I've lived a very active life, and was in a hurry for most of it. Now, maybe it's time I and likely a lot more of us toned it all down a few bars, and just thought about things more, and do less. So much of what we do really doesn't amount to a hill of beans, really, and yet, we drive ourselves like it was "do or die." We chase what we moderns tend to call "the American dream" of more, more, more, but we enjoy it all less and less and less. Folks, that "just ain't right!"
I think we could all benefit from a lot more patience, and could do with a bit less than we usually think we really "need" to be what we call "happy" today. And I don't know about you, but so many of the folks who actually GOT all that they thought would make them "happy," have found that they no longer know how to really appreciate or enjoy any of it. They can't often even enjoy a good day on the water fishing, or a day in the woods hunting. They've forgotten how to "be a kid again," and simply enjoy whatever we have before us.
I've always said I'd be like Peter Pan, and never really "grow up," as the term has been used for most of my life. I've had one whale of a great time in my life, through even the bad parts. I've drunk whatever cup was before me pretty much to the lees. Now, I'm kind'a glad it's slowing down for me. I'm so much more satisfied, now that I'm not trying to be "happy." My sense of humor is better, deeper and stronger. My love for family, friends and my God are stronger.
Truly, patience is a real "wonder drug" if we'll just use it. So join me if you will, and your own situation and life allow it, in trying to really learn true patience this coming year. It really matters, and can change more than any of us can fathom it ought to in our lives. But it does it no matter what we think or project about it.
So join me if you will in seeking patience in the new year. I suspect we're all gonna' need a big ol' dose of it, because it seems to promise to be a vexing and critical year in all our lives. Praise the Lord, and thanks be to Him for all he so generously gives us each and every day.
And patience is probably the rarest commodity in our world today. Everything and everybody seems to always be in a hurry. And in their haste, they overlook and totally miss SO much in this life! I told an 80 yr. old lady once that I knew she was a Christian when I first laid eyes on her. She asked how I could possibly know a thing like that. I smiled, and told her it was the look in her eyes - a searching, inquisitive and totally unafraid look, and in her gait and manner - casual, progressive and in no big hurry. I told her that the look in her eyes told me that she was looking all about, but what she was seeing was beyond the mere physicality of it all. It just shone through so clearly it couldn't be missed. Her eyebrows rose, and she seemed impressed, but not fully convinced, but at least accepted that possibility.
And she has always proven to be one of the calmest and most patient people I think I've ever known, but she's always been very much that way. She had a heart defect as a child, and the docs told her Mom she'd probably not last through her teen years. Her Mom was devastated! And she prayed every night of her life that God would spare this wonderful woman. And God granted that prayer. She recently had some surgery in Savannah, and flew through it like a hot knife through butter. Not one complication of any sort. Her whole life has been a testament to the power and glory of the Lord and His power to heal and be merciful and extend His grace to us when we simply ask for it. What a wonderful story her whole life is!
And it has, I think, helped her become one of the most patient, confident and truly loving people on the face of our God's green earth! She's a true wonder to more willful types like myself!
So it is, that with a new leader for our nation, that one of the things I'll be praying for most earnestly for myself in the coming year is simple patience. If we have patience, we slow down, and if we slow down, we CAN give ourselves the simple time and blessing to simply NOTICE things we have probably been glossing over or ignoring for years and years. I've lived a very active life, and was in a hurry for most of it. Now, maybe it's time I and likely a lot more of us toned it all down a few bars, and just thought about things more, and do less. So much of what we do really doesn't amount to a hill of beans, really, and yet, we drive ourselves like it was "do or die." We chase what we moderns tend to call "the American dream" of more, more, more, but we enjoy it all less and less and less. Folks, that "just ain't right!"
I think we could all benefit from a lot more patience, and could do with a bit less than we usually think we really "need" to be what we call "happy" today. And I don't know about you, but so many of the folks who actually GOT all that they thought would make them "happy," have found that they no longer know how to really appreciate or enjoy any of it. They can't often even enjoy a good day on the water fishing, or a day in the woods hunting. They've forgotten how to "be a kid again," and simply enjoy whatever we have before us.
I've always said I'd be like Peter Pan, and never really "grow up," as the term has been used for most of my life. I've had one whale of a great time in my life, through even the bad parts. I've drunk whatever cup was before me pretty much to the lees. Now, I'm kind'a glad it's slowing down for me. I'm so much more satisfied, now that I'm not trying to be "happy." My sense of humor is better, deeper and stronger. My love for family, friends and my God are stronger.
Truly, patience is a real "wonder drug" if we'll just use it. So join me if you will, and your own situation and life allow it, in trying to really learn true patience this coming year. It really matters, and can change more than any of us can fathom it ought to in our lives. But it does it no matter what we think or project about it.
So join me if you will in seeking patience in the new year. I suspect we're all gonna' need a big ol' dose of it, because it seems to promise to be a vexing and critical year in all our lives. Praise the Lord, and thanks be to Him for all he so generously gives us each and every day.