I was talking about my involvement with Gush ie: ‘history in a nutshell’ and some of the not so greats in being a mod today with hmm, no we wont name them. Anyway this person stands almost totally outside my online life, thank goodness (it’s nice to have a few) and hasn’t known me all that long and they said something about me being really patient. To which I sort of scoffed at in the politest way you can do when you are given a compliment. They were being quite genuine and I guess it got me thinking.
I am almost positive I’ve mentioned me and patience before, because as a general rule Rebecca and the big P word have done war fairly consistently over the past years. I am not, in my own eyes or head a very patient person although I am fairly sure I have improved slightly over the past couple of years.
I can look back with curiousity at a ‘blessing’ I was once given. It was a little unusual, it must have been just before or just after we came back from the Solomons for the last time. So I was about 15 perhaps. Johann is a close family friend and we’d been staying at his parents place somewhere up near Sydney. They returned the night or so before we left and on our departure Johann’s Dad asked my Dad if he could, I guess, say a blessing individually for each of us girls. I remember vaguely what Hannah’s was about, not Laura’s or Emilys but I do remember mine.
Patience. It was an extremely odd time to bring that up in my life. I can recall my sisters actually having a bit of a laugh about it as I’m simply not (or wasn’t) patient at all. I didn’t really get the relevance to then, but in a way I’ve seen it play out more and more.
It’s good to know that we are being prepared in some way for what’s ahead, it’s just a pity that we always seem to have to look backwards and find some broader context to know where God’s been working rather then seeing what’s now and relevant. At the same time I like that, we can’t fortune tell our lives and we can’t expect someone else to do that, be it God or human.
Perhaps patience plays a larger part in my life than I realise. Sure hope it doesn’t always have to be that way but thankfully the shaping of us does happen despite the growing pains.
Keep breathing Bec… keep breathing..!
never stopped in the first place 😉
Funny thing as soon as I started reading this post, your “blessing” came to mind before you even mentioned it, I was just marveling at how it had fit perfectly when you mentioned it yourself.
I remember your blessing very vividly (I hardly remember mine)…and yes I admit to almost chuckling when Johann’s Dad spoke those words. Never thought I’d see the day, now I look back rather humbled.