Patience

God has really been testing my patience lately...I think he knows that is probably one of the most weakest areas of my life. I don't think I have ever really been very patient my entire life. I get anxious quickly or upset easily when things are taking too much time (at least in my opinion).

Looking up the definition of patience, I get this:

"the quality of being patient, as the bearing of provocation, annoyance, misfortune, or pain, without complaint, loss of temper, irritation, or the like."

 

I look at this definition and I basically feel/act out all of the above actions that you are not supposed to have with patience: annoyance, misfortune (sometimes), definitely complain a lot (need to work on that), loss of temper (for sure), irritation (often).

 

As I was looking up patience, I also wanted to see what the Bible says about being patient and these verses stuck out to me the most:

 

Romans 12:12 Rejoice in hope, be patient in tribulation, be constant in prayer. (I do feel like I am in constant prayer lately)

Jeremiah 29:11 For I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord, plans for welfare and not for evil, to give you a future and a hope. 

Romans 5:4 And endurance produces character, and character produces hope

 There are a ton more verses, but those are the ones that stuck out the most to me.  Lately, I have definitely been struggling with being patient and I feel as though God knows it and is in a way purposely testing me in traffic, in my relationships, with Natalie in her teething phase, and in the selling of our old home.

I know there is a reason that our old home isn't selling, but I think we've done just about everything we can without breaking the bank to try and make our old house sellable.  It's in a great neighborhood, probably on the best street since no neighbors are behind you and you have a huge open field with a small row of trees so it's very country-like for being in the city. The yard is beautifully landscaped, it has mostly all brand new windows, brand new front and back doors, brand new carpet, fresh paint in the main area of the home except the bedrooms (people are going to want to change the paint color anyway). We have really great neighbors. We started the house in the top price range trying to make some money (actually break even basically with all the new upgrades) and now we have lowered the price hoping that will bring more buyers in. Whoever says that real estate is an investment...I just have to snicker because that is definitely not the case in selling our home. Good luck finding a house the age of ours with the landscaping, updates, and in an established popular neighborhood for our price/location. It has really been testing my patience lately and I feel like I am in constant prayer for God to bring a serious buyer our way! I know it has only been on the market for 2 months in this economy, but there again, my patience is pretty thin!

My patience with my relationship with Bobby has really been wearing super thin and basically to the point where I no longer have any patience with him, especially since moving and maintaining 2 homes. He is much more detail oriented than me I guess so it takes him (in my opinion) FOREVER to do something that should only take a few minutes to a few hours. I could go on and on with other strong disagreements with Bobby and other relationships that are wearing down my patience, but I will refrain and just leave it at I have been asking for guidance in this relationship area for sure!

Natalie, as cute as she can be, can also wear on my patience; although I would have to say I have 100% more patience with her than anyone else. Lately, I believe she has been through the teething phase because at nighttime she will just scream for at least a half hour with Bobby or I trying to calm her down. The other night, the Orajel got misplaced (Bobby blames me and of course I blame him), so we both looked for it, but never found it. Luckily, Natalie calmed herself down and went back to sleep. Last night she did the same thing, but after buying more Orajel (extra strength for nighttime), that didn't seem to work, but about 30 minutes later and a bottle later, she was back to sleep. Bobby tends to think that she is doing this late at night because I am feeding her too much baby food, but she only eats 1 packet of the baby food (equivalent to a container of Gerber) a night and when she is done she spits out her food to let us all know (which can be quite annoying)! Once again, I disagree with Bobby (surprise!, surprise!), I am still going with the teething. You don't see Bobby feeding Natalie baby food, so if he would like to start doing that, it would be fine by me!

For now, I'll continue to pray for patience and remember this quote:

Patience is the ability to count down before you blast off.  ~Author Unknown