Lord give me patience..... (now would be good please!!!)

I haven't blogged for a while, and I haven't stuck to my "15 minutes of reading the Bible, and 15 minutes of praying" routine either..... but I am trying!  I have started doing some exercise.  Today I did 30 minutes on the walker, and I've started swimming occasionally (not as regularly as I would like yet, it's still a bit cold!).


I am currently reading one of Joyce Meyer's books - Living Beyond Your Feelings.  (I should be on Joyce's staff - I do lots of promotion for her and her books!).  It's an excellent book, and one that I need right now.  I have always been an emotional person.  Say what I think, do what I want (within reason - after all, I do call myself a Christian - so there are boundaries).  But in this book, Joyce shows that it is possible to live a life that is not controlled by emotion, but by the Word of God.  I'm also reading another of her books, which was published some time ago.  It is "Secrets to Exceptional Living - Transforming Your Life Through the Fruit of the Spirit".  The chapter I read on the weekend was about "patience".


There is a quote in the movie "Evan Almighty" - Let me ask you something. If someone prays for patience, you think God gives them patience? Or does he give them the opportunity to be patient? If he prayed for courage, does God give him courage, or does he give him opportunities to be courageous? If someone prayed for the family to be closer, do you think God zaps them with warm fuzzy feelings, or does he give them opportunities to love each other? 


So obviously when I asked God to give me "patience", His answer was to give me a 6 year old girl.  My 6 year old takes forever to do anything.  Tonight she took over half an hour to write one sentence for her homework (she had to write about her favourite part of her holidays).  She eats slowly.  She goes to the toilet slowly.  She showers slowly.  She dresses slowly.  The only thing she doesn't do slowly is talk.


Now if I can trust the Bible (and I can, and do), then I obviously already have the seed of patience inside me when I accepted Jesus into my life.  But here's the thing, I need to exercise patience to make it grow.  Just like I have to go walking if I want to lose weight, I have to practice being patient if I want to be patient.....


So armed with this knowledge and the Word of God, I'm going to try and be more patient with my children.  I need God to help me, because I can't do it alone.