One More Day

I like to think that I'm a patient person.  Sometimes I actually am, but other times, well, I'm just not.  

I get frustrated when someone isn't doing something as efficiently as I think they should (living in Russian and having a little person has helped with this one!).  

I get impatient when I have to repeat myself a lot.  

I get impatient when I've asked my husband to do something, and he doesn't understand that I'm waiting on him to do it so that I can do something else, and of course he doesn't do what I wanted him to do when I wanted him to do it.  

I feel frustrated when he doesn't help me when I think he should know that I need help--why should I have to ask for it?

All that being said not to excuse my sin of being impatient and wanting my own way, but to expose it for what it is.  And perhaps this time of waiting is a gift from God to help me learn more about patience.  During this time of waiting to see the doctor to know what is going on with the little baby in my belly, I can learn better to wait on God, to trust in Him, to depend on Him and not myself.

We listened to a really good sermon by John Piper last night, since we couldn't go to church.  It was "What is the Recession For?" (I think)  Anyway, he listed 5 reasons that he believes God might be giving America their current recession.  I don't remember all the reasons, but several of them were connected to the idea of looking outside of ourselves and trusting God, looking to the worthiness of God and not our wealth and thinking about other people.

So right now, as I lay in bed and my Little Man crawls around on the floor, and Thomas waits on me hand and foot, I'm trying to think about what God is giving me in my time of bed rest.  I can learn dependence as I must accept Thomas' help.  I can now be more sympathetic and understanding and helpful to women who I will know who go through similar circumstances.  I can spend extra time in prayer and reading the Word, things that I've been working on anyway!  I can chat with a friend through Skype whom I don't get to talk to very often, and she can help me think through some of the medical stuff--I can appreciate my friends more!  I can appreciate my husband (not that I don't appreciate him already, but I can see yet another way that He is growing in grace as well and hopefully encourage him, too).  

Can you think of other ways that God is giving me a gift right now?  What is God giving you lately?