The waiting game

I have been waiting and waiting for a few packages to arrive. On December 5th, I won an e-Bay auction (presents for my boys) and I'm still waiting for the package to arrive. On Sunday, I ordered Christmas cards that are in route as well. I also ordered another item that is due to arrive any day. Every day, I rush home to see if anything has arrived. And yet I wait! Last night, I checked the USPS & UPS websites to discover that all three packages should arrive today. I cannot wait! (no pun intended)

Why is it that patience is so hard to come by? I get annoyed by our "I want it & I want it RIGHT NOW" society, yet I find myself impatient with myself, my kids, my husband, traffic, the postal service, the drive-thru worker and anything or anyone else that keeps me from immediately receiving whatever it is that I want. I justify my opinion and attitude by saying that the person or process should be more efficient - especially in "this day and age".

Most of the time, the problem is not with my external circumstances, but a problem of the heart. My heart. I am full of sin. And I don't even recognize the problem half of the time. I blame others or get irritated and I forget to look in the mirror. Today, this morning, I'm aware. In times that I am reminded by the Holy Spirit that the only reason I'm breathing today is because God, in his ultimate grace, has chosen to save me... I stand corrected and grateful. I need that Holy Spirit poke now and again (more often than I notice it, I'm sure) to keep me on the right path. I need to write God's Word down and post it in every possible nook and cranny of my life, so I remember it at times when I am tempted to be impatient or let any sin rule my heart. I am reminded of these verses...

"Therefore, as God's chosen people, holy and dearly loved, clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience." Colossians 3:12

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"But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. Against such things there is no law." Galatians 5:22-23

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"Fix these words of mine in your hearts and minds; tie them as symbols on your hands and bind them on your foreheads. Teach them to your children, talking about them when you sit at home and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up. Write them on the doorframes of your houses and on your gates..." Deuteronomy 11:18-20

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"We know that the law is spiritual; but I am unspiritual, sold as a slave to sin. I do not understand what I do. For what I want to do I do not do, but what I hate I do. And if I do what I do not want to do, I agree that the law is good. As it is, it is no longer I myself who do it, but it is sin living in me. I know that nothing good lives in me, that is, in my sinful nature. For I have the desire to do what is good, but I cannot carry it out. For what I do is not the good I want to do; no, the evil I do not want to do—this I keep on doing. Now if I do what I do not want to do, it is no longer I who do it, but it is sin living in me that does it. So I find this law at work: When I want to do good, evil is right there with me. For in my inner being I delight in God's law; but I see another law at work in the members of my body, waging war against the law of my mind and making me a prisoner of the law of sin at work within my members. What a wretched man I am! Who will rescue me from this body of death? Thanks be to God—through Jesus Christ our Lord!" Romans 7:14-25

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Thanks be to God for rescuing me!