Patience, Lord...

My daughter tells me I shouldn't pray for patience or God will give me situations in which I must practice patience. *sigh*

Yesterday opportunities abounded in which to practice patience.

#1 - Hubby is a trustee at church and this is his month to lock up the church. NO problem. Our Bible Study group met at 12:30 right after the second service. Problem: We could not open the closet which housed the keys to lock all the doors--and every one was open. There was a Master Lock box on the door which required a code to open. Okay, no one told hubby about this lock box or the code. The person in charge of the trustees had not given him a walk-through of what to do, but we figured it wouldn't be a big deal to lock all the doors, provided we had the tools to do so. At 2pm in the afternoon, all alone in a vast church, the problem loomed quite large. So, I began calling people from the church directory who lived close by. Answering machines. What did I expect on a beautiful, sunny Sunday? Finally, I reached someone who gave us the code--which didn't work! What now? Back to the phones. I reached another lady I knew would be helpful. Guess what? She gave me the same code. *sigh* However, she did tell me to call if I couldn't get it to work because she had a key that would open the door. Ten more minutes of trying and I had to ask her to bring that key. She arrived, in a good humor, thank the good Lord. I had her check the code and sure enough, I had input it correctly. HOWEVER, no one ever told us a Master Box would drop open and reveal a "key" to open the door! She simpy pulled the lock box open and grinned. Well, geesh. Patience, Lord. Then, she showed me the master floor plan with different colored dots. Apparently on the first Sunday, all the fire extinguishers need to be checked and initialed. And all the thermostats need to be checked and set appropriately. Did I tell you VAST church. Our sanctuary seats 1800 people. There is a huge family life center, AND an attached academy for preschool through sixth grade! Two floors of classrooms. An hour later, with all the extinguishers checked, the thermostats reset, and all the doors locked, we made our way home.

#2 - Had to go grocery shopping so we could eat this week. Took Mom with me because she "needed a few things." Last week she bought a one pound package of cheese slices, of which she still had over half left. She kept asking me where the BOX of three packages of cheese slices were. That's what she always buys. Before I could find this box of cheese, she began a frustrated string of words about how she should have brought the two boxes from her refrigerator along with her. Patience, Lord. I explained again how we had no way to refrigerate the cheese on our ten hour trip from Illinois to Ohio and that's why we didn't bring it. Luckily, I found the box of cheese slices, and she's now happy.

#3 - Hubby walked into my office and looked at the box of 100 calorie Kudos. He looked inside, picked up a M & M bar and asked if the bars were mine. I told him to help himself (thinking, this is exactly what he asked me two weeks ago when he took an M & M bar). Then he proceeded to ask me where I got them. I explained I purchased them from GFS when I purchased the paper products for our grandson's wedding reception. He stared at the bar, turned it around in his hand, and smiled. I told him to help himself whenever he wanted...but then I slipped and said, "Just as I told you two weeks ago when you asked me about them and ate an M & M bar." He said, "Really? I don't remember seeing these before." *sigh* Patience, Lord.