The last 2 weeks have given me a lot of opportunities to improve my patience. (That has become a catch phrase in my house now. When I start to feel frustrated, I try to stop and sincerely thank the family member who is helping me to work on my patience. It isn’t always said as sincerely as it should be and I’m working on that lol)
I got sick 2 weeks ago. It was just a common cold, but I am severely immune suppressed, so a common cold goes rabid in my body without an immune system to keep it in check. Several times I could feel myself getting frustrated with my body and my health. I learned that when I’m impatient. I use the words “stupid” and “annoying” a lot. Phrases like “I’m so tired of my stupid body always being sick!” came to my mind so often. But I didn’t say them. I believe words have power. I think stopping those thoughts and trying to be patient with my body and my health is really good for me. I feel less pain when I’m being patient with myself.
Then last weekend, my son had multiple seizures over 2 days and after was completely not himself. He couldn’t do most of the things that he can usually do. He ended up spending 2 days in the hospital. He’s back to baseline now. And I’m very grateful. Those were 2 long days. I didn’t know what was happening and I didn’t know if my son would be able to come back to his baseline. I felt helpless. I had to really focus on being patient. Prayer and knowing that others were praying for my son helped me to feel patient with putting his health in the hands of his Heavenly Father.
I’m sorry that I’m late starting this month’s virtue. I hope you all appreciated the opportunity to be patient with me. I promise to give you many more opportunities. I’, excited about adding a new virtue to focus on. I will continue to work on Patience. I still have a long way to go, but I have improved, and I feel more at peace.
The second virtue mentioned in 1 Corinthians 13:4-7, is Kindness. Kindness has been a focus of mine for the last few years. I want to be kind. I’m trying to be kind. I’m certainly not perfectly kind, very far from that, but I’m kinder than I was, and I am improving.
I’m curious about the inclusion of the virtue of kindness with the other attributes that follow. I would have said that most of the other attributes are all part of kindness. But it is really nice to focus on each small part, so I looked to see what Kindness actually is. I looked at a lot of definitions of Kindness. Most of them were similar, but the one that I like the best is this one.
“Kindness is the quality of being gentle, caring, and helpful.”
Ironically, or not so ironically, I guess, I think I am most kind when I’m patient, and most unkind when I am impatient. As I continue to work on patience, it will help me to become more kind.
I would love to hear from any of you about how you have improved in kindness or examples of kindness. It is so nice to work on these things together.
#heatherslovechallenge