Patience

Honking horns, screaming kids, squealing tires, huffing, grumbling, angry screams, these things can all be heard when people are impatient. People no longer want to wait for hardly anything and in some cases I am guilty of this too. Bigger things I'm patient about; smaller things not so much all the time.

God likes to see how much you truly believe in Him. My patience is His favorite thing to test me on. For instance I waited 22 years for a first kiss and it was magical. I'm still waiting for marriage to have sex. However, there is this small matter called I-do-not-want-to-fix-my-own-food-so-I-will-go-to-Burger-King. Now this is where my patience is really tested. I guess I think if I'm not cooking it waiting 15-25 is the biggest slap in the face. Like God looking down at me and smiling "Learn my child, you were too lazy to fix food now you are in this predicament." (Plus don't even start with me about when they get my order wrong.)

But if we hope for what we do not see, we wait for it with patience. - Romans 8:25

Waiting patiently for food that you can't see but smell is one the hardest things to do (plus food that could still be wrong which means more waiting). God wants you to realize that all of us have battles we are struggling with even during our jobs. We all can face that. I have to remind myself that most of these are high school kids who are dealing with coworkers not showing up, their boss is mad at the coworkers not showing up for work and taking it out on the ones that did show up, plus these kids have family, friends and school to think about. Why should I be another problem to their day? Yeah I want my food right but having a bad attitude is not going to help.

It's funny to me I hear a lot people say "Well I'm not coming to this place again." Many times the workers don't care if a certain customer comes back especially if they are a national chain. They are just trying to do their jobs. A lot of the time we forget we were once in their position. We were new, young, and just desperate to get a job to make a tiny bit of money. It's better than a lot of people my age that think they shouldn't work and still should get paid.

Don't become angry quickly because getting angry is foolish. - Ecclesiastes 7:9

I work on this a lot outside the fast food places as well. People who pester me make my patience drop all the time. Especially when it's them that are complaining about something that isn't happening now. That might even be worse than the fast food places. The reason why it's worse? Because I want to preach to them about learning patience, but at the same time I have probably lost my patience by then.

Do not worry about anything, but pray and ask God for everything you need, always giving thanks. - Philippians 4:6

People forget that we aren't in control of our lives. God chooses the courses for us to go through to prove that we are for Him. That's why you go to Him. He wants to know you aren't stubborn and arrogant that you aren't all about you.

Because you know that these troubles test your faith, and this will give you patience. Let your patience show itself perfectly in what you do. Then you will be perfect and complete and will have everything you need. - James 1:3-4

God and I have had many discussions about my patience. What did I come up with? I need to find more patience, but not only that I also need to learn to use that time I'm waiting wisely and show God that I am all about him. I like that idea. God has given me so many blessings why not be all about Him?

God will strengthen you with his own great power so that you will not give up when troubles come, but you will be patient. - Colossians 1:11