Patience

I picked up the book The Love Dare last week on a whim. Let me note that it's a book about saving your marriage and I am in no way implying my marriage is on the rocks! But, rather, this book is about practicing unconditional love, something that takes a great deal of effort on my part on a good day.

The idea is that you have 40 days of "assignments" and the first assignment is to make sure you are practicing patience....all day....and in every situation.

I'll be honest, much of the time, patience is NOT my first response to situations.

I also believe that challenges are put in your path for a reason and that God often has a great sense of humor.

So...my assignment is patience today....that was the last thing I read about before going to bed.

Here's how my day looks (I'm sure you'll see some humor in this....keeping in mind that I'm to practice patience....all day.)

• Perry set his alarm clock for 4:30 and hit the snooze button for almost an hour! And each time the alarm would go off, I'd have to wake him up to turn it off. So, my "testing" came bright and early this morning as I tried NOT to bite off my husband's head for being so insensitive to my sleep needs BUT RATHER keep in mind that he must be so tired as to not hear the alarm screeching on his side of the bed. (Anyone who thinks a teacher has a cushy work schedule needs to spend a week with us...he was getting up at 4:30 to get caught up on grading.)

• Perry has a football game today (no surprise) but it's away and starts later than usual because of the ACT test. That means he'll be away much longer than on a typical football Saturday. Carson really wanted to go with him but they are playing a team that was involved in a shooting after a basketball game with Perry's team last year. Nope, Carson's not going today and is a little bummed to start the day.

• The kids are done with soccer so they have no activities (yeah!) but....the water heater when out last night and the new one is being installed today...sometime between 10 and 2. So, not a good day (afterall) to invite friends over or go out to do something as we were originally thinking. Bummer.

• Since there is no hot water, I'm waiting until there is some to take a shower. I hate not taking a shower first thing in the morning and I already feel smarmy.

• I'm in major PMS mode today with a nasty headache already starting.

• We're hosting a big family gathering over here tomorrow and I need to clean my house...with no hot water.

• The kid in the neighborhood who Carson is having troubles with has told all of the other neighborhood kids that they can't play with Carson. Nice, huh? Mom still thinks this other kid is the victim in all of this. (not feeling much patience here, feeling downright anger at this situation) Carson's best friend lives down the street and is unswayed by this other kid's tactics so hopefully he'll be around today so Carson can play with him. As I've thought about the situation with Carson, I've realized how important it is for our children to have friends from families whose values match our own, particularly at this age when they are starting to become a bit more independent. Our pastor spoke about this a few weeks back but that message has really become clearer lately.

I'll let you know how this patience thing works for me today! Those of you that believe in the power of prayer might want to send up an extra thought for me today!