Praying for Patience

Ask anyone who prays, and they'll tell you - "Don't pray for patience, 'cuz you know what'll happen!!" Well, this morning I prayed for patience. And it happened - a 40 minute tantrum courtesy of my 4-year old. And I started wondering if it's true: does God answer prayers for patience by throwing really frustrating situations in our path?? I figured it that's the way it works, I won't be praying that prayer again anytime soon. Honestly, what I really want is for patience to magically manifest itself in me. I don't ever want to feel frustrated and impatient again... especially with my kids. But the more I thought about it, the more I began to realize that developing traits such as patience is a lot like getting physically fit. You have to work for it. There's going to be a bit of sweat, some pain, an early morning workout or two. Over time and with lots of practice, when I find myself in those situations that tempt me to give in to my frustration, I will start to sense a growing reserve of patience, a deep underground well of peace.

From a parent's perspective, it seems that this is actually a pretty decent answer to a prayer for patience. After all, we don't want to be the kind of parents who do our kids' homework for them, or automatically give them everything they think they need. We want them to develop the skills necessary to make it in the world. God is a good parent - He knows that if He just hands stuff over to us we'll start to feel all entitled and full of ourselves, and maybe we'll start to view Him as a genie in a bottle instead of the Creator of the world and the Ruler of the universe...

Maybe tomorrow I will pray for patience again. Maybe, instead of resenting the tantrums (and the messes, and the fights, and the endless questions) I should embrace them. Maybe it's time to view motherhood as boot camp for my character and let God answer my prayers. After all, the power that raised Christ from the dead is available to me in my quest for wholeness and holiness (Ephesians 1:18-20).

Time to go - I think I hear my personal trainers calling. Hopefully they didn't make a mess downstairs... oh, wait... hopefully they did. :)