Impatiently Waiting for Patience

I've been saying for years that I want to be more patient in life. This summer I am going to accomplish that goal.

I was probably about 13 when I realized that I was an overly impatient person. I knew at the time that it wasn't good to be impatient, but I never really cared much about it to change anything. Patience is so vital to life. Patience can be used in so many different ways and there are honestly no negatives to having patience. 

Looking back on my life, there have been a few times where I've been able to be patient. But those times were few and far between. I had to be patient on finding out where I would be serving The Lord this summer--(FYI, it's Scotland for those who don't know). Waiting to hear from someone who I didn't know well for something that would be a huge impact in my life was one of the hardest things I've ever done. But I was able to endure and now my patience has paid off. 

That doesn't mean that I suddenly became the most patient person in the world. Actually if you had asked me early last week, I would have let you know that I didn't have a patient bone in my body. 

It's been a week since I began working with some of my favorite kids on the world. It's also been a week since I've began working with children who need more patience than I have. 

Obviously I love being a camp counselor, but I'd be lying if I said that all days were fantastic. There are some kids who are angels one day and then divas the next. And that's okay because they're all still kids so it's perfectly fine for them to have moments of misbehavior since they're still learning. 

But it's not alright for me to have those misbehaving moments. 

I know that if I want to keep being happy at my job, I'm going to need A LOT of patience. 

Anyone who knows me knows that I love children. I absolutely adore working with children. But that doesn't mean that loving them is always easy. 

I cannot constantly yell at the kids or punish them via timeout simply because they don't do what I say right away (no matter how bad I really want to). In these "troubling times," patience comes in handy.

I know that God is using these kids to teach me patience right now. It's been one week and I can already feel myself becoming more patient, especially with the kids. I can now only pray that I will grow more patient throughout the summer. One day I hope that when God calls me to do something that requires patience, I will be able to do it happily and not complain. 

And I know that God's timing will come for me, but until then, I'll be patiently waiting.