Tuesday, December 8, 2009

Dearest God,

Perseverance, one of my life lessons this year has been about perseverance. I have learned to persevere during hard times.

On Sunday after church I had to take down every string of lights that hugged my roof line. I had put the icicle lights up on the coldest day. On my rickety ladder, sometimes I leaned left and then right as the ladder feet stood on uneven ground. My hands were freezing but I persevered. For some reason when I came to the end, there was no female plug to connect to the extension cord. Both ends were male plugs. What a dilemma.

So today after church I pulled them down keeping them all connected and placed them down my hallway into the living room over the couch and back out to the hall. I went over every strand trying to figure out where I went wrong. I soon figured it out, turned some of the strands around and went back outside to hang them a second time.

There would have been a day where this simple exercise would have driven me mad. I would have been so frustrated, so agitated that I may have decided to give up thinking there was no way out. However, during many months you have shown me a better way. You have taught me patience, something difficult to master. Patience has made life easier, so much easier because I have learned to persevere.

You are forever
teaching me
life lessons,
O Lord.
More often
than not,
I do not
want to
learn them.
However,
you never
give up
on me.
You whisper
the better way,
always reminding me
that you
know more
than me.
As I feel
the humbling sting
I can
finally acknowledge
your will
is always best.
I may not
always get
what I want
or get it quickly
but as
I trust you
to show me,
to lead
and guide me,
I will receive
the gifts
you deem good
for me.
Teach me,
dear Lord,
the better way.

Love, Andrea