Greetings!   

TODAY is MY BIRTHDAY!

After so very many years of life, I feel as if the world is just opening up for me.   There is so much to look forward to and so many adventures ahead. I remember feeling that way when I was a little girl , and then again before my 20^th birthday when  I made a "leap of faith decision" to believe with my whole heart that Jesus could teach me about the love of God and TRUTH; that he could walk with me through the rocky paths of life ahead and show me the straighter roads; and that my "young adult" yearning for fulfillment and peace lie mysteriously in his dying on the cross and rising again for ME. I felt the world opening up just for me when I met Bob and we married, when we had each of our children...and now, our grandchildren!

In between the "world opening up for me moments", there has been a definite pattern of needing to be "patient with life". Aunt Madeleine (in her 90's) asked Bob and I to pray for her that she could be "patient with life". Since that time (just a few weeks back), I have been thinking about what she meant by that. Is it that life isn't the way she would like it to be, but she is trying to let it be as it is, and making the most of it? Is it that "waiting" for death to come to her door is not an easy time? Is it that she is yearning for something else....maybe to be with her husband Tom again or maybe to have some new adventure in the middle of her routine life?

Maybe she is yearning for God the way we all are?

Are you needing to be patient with your life right now?  

Last week I had a restless night sleep. In the midst of my having so much to be thankful for, I lay awake contemplating each of our children's lives, and each of their concerns. I felt a bit burdened, wanting to "fix anything" that was troublesome for them.

I know that nighttime is not the best time to think things through. Everything seems a bit darker, like the night, itself.  Remembering that "light" comes in the morning and everything looks better helped me to be patient with life that night. "Give us this day our daily bread". Getting up and tackling a task, and then reading a book tired my eyes so I could go back to sleep. Picturing each of life's concerns with a positive outcome helped my prayer become one of "joyful expectation" rather than that of a "panic plea"... This too helped me to be patient with life that night.      

WAITING.   All of us are waiting for something, needing to be patient with life. Darcy is waiting to give birth.  Randy got a good job! But he had to wait a few years, and be very patient with life till that happened.  Ron is waiting for his paralyzed side to start responding to therapy. My good friend is "waiting" to find a way to pay the rent this month. Sandy found out that her husband has cancer. How long will Steve live, will they find a cure?  We are all waiting for the economy to turn around. We wait for our husbands to become more affectionate and notice that we look great! We wait for someone to knock on our door to say hello because the days seem so lonely and long. We wait for Fall to come and then we are already dreaming of Spring.

We think our waiting will come to an end. And in a way it does. The baby is born, but then we try to be patient with life until he sleeps through the night. We get our job and then we try to be patient with life until our first paycheck finally arrives and we adjust ourselves to our new boss and new surroundings. . Our paralyzed leg starts to respond and then we must be very patient with life because we are so hoping that our arm will move too.  

A family that I know in New Hampshire, waited a whole year for their father to return from Afghanistan.  He came home safely just last month! They were making plans to move to be with him in Washington DC when they got a call that he had died in his sleep. Now their patience with life takes on a whole different face. When will the sadness lessen? When will the heartache become manageable? What will their future look like without him?

The perennial flowers above are abundant and full of color.  Before long they will disappear and return again next spring.  Our lives are much like this.  There is joy and there is sadness.  There is life and there is death.  There is the fulfillment of our dreams, and the yearning for life to be dreamlike.

And in the midst of all of this, there is faith, hope and love that gives life meaning and gives us the courage to become  Patient with Life  and to bask in the abundant life.

There is an art to being "Patient with Life".  The paint brushes are faith, hope, and love.   

I will be completing this series on virtues during Advent and we will be "matching" faith, hope and love with our real life world.   I would love to hear from you about your stories that just might be a great blessing to others.

In the meantime, Pray, Think, Act! 

Till then.

Sharon    O Happy Virtue, Patience with Life