Weakness.

Pain is weakness leaving the body. First time I heard this was from my rowing coach George. It has stuck with me ever since. How true these words are.  He of course was referring to us practicing like champions pushing through our pain, giving it our all. This isn’t just how you win a race, but also how you overcome life’s many obstacles.

Over the years I have been spending a lot of time focusing on what I believed my weaknesses to be. I decided I could not be a true image of Christ with these not so Christian qualities. The two biggest weaknesses I saw that I had were negativity and impatience.

The first one I decided to tackle was negativity. I used to be THE most negative person. My mother would always tell me how negative I was, how I always found the worst thing in every situation. That really ate at me. I’m not sure why I was so negative. Perhaps, it was just the prime of my teen years or my lack of seeing God in every situation. In reality that’s where negativity comes from….not seeing God in every situation. My negativity truly came from the simple lack of thinking things through. When you are quick to jump to a conclusion the outcome is usually negative. So I decided to put that second issue I had into test, my impatience.

Patience gives you time to think. Patience gives you wisdom. With patience you can conquer many problems. I was more impatient than I was negative so this was…a challenge. My life was always in a hurry and for no apparent reason. I was always rushing my parents to get me somewhere, always wanting the answers to issues now, always wanting God to give me what I wanted right away and when this didn’t happen, I’d get upset.

Those who are patient have great understanding, but the quick tempered display folly. Proverbs 15:29. Bam! Right from the Bible. When I read that verse it legit slapped me across the face. It was like God going “Hey dumdum check it out!” I came to realize that God is not about your timing and it’s not in your benefit to think that he is. A phrase that Britt introduced me to that I love oh so much is “God’s perfect timing.” Because my goodness that statement is so true. God knows every right moment from the beginning of time till the end of it. (2012)

Patience leads to great understanding. Don’t try and solve things right away it leads to stress. Stop and think about it. Think about the best choice. Pray about it and God will always give you the right outcome in his time.

Today at church B.B. made the point that learning patience sure does take a long time. Ain’t that the hilarious truth. It’ll cause frustration and take a whole lot of discipline. It requires you being able to catch yourself in the moment. I spent an entire year making it my goal to overcome impatience and with it came the bonus of overcoming negativity.

Stopping to think about it gives you time to see the beauty in every situation you just have to let your eyes be open to it.

The first time I was told “Why the heck are you always so positive” I laughed because that person had no idea what it took to get there. They had no idea of how much it took me to push through. It took me calling myself out numerous times. It took me realizing that God is in every situation because there is a plan for everything. There is a reason for everything. And there is nothing negative about knowing that everything happens for a reason. It may take you a while to see the reason but God will show it to you in HIS perfect timing, not your own.

Now I’m not saying I am this SUPER POSITIVE patient person though I have come a long long way. I still find myself when I’m just overwhelmed by anxiety that I spit out something incredibly stupid that by no means did I mean. Today for example my car broke down and my mom said I’m sure it’ll be fine to which I quickly replied “I doubt that”. Don’t know why I said it but I immediately regretted it. This all comes back to what we talked about today at Fellowship of the Hills.

No matter how often we try and straighten out our problems they always seem to get twisted back up again. Improving on it is knowing the right way to handle them. It’s being patient and taking the time to realize the right way to handle them.

I try to avoid praying for things in a timeframe, that just means I’m being impatient and wanting things done my way. I pray for God to prepare me for when HE is ready because I know that if I wait for HIS timing, I cannot fail.

Patience brings you wisdom. Wisdom is knowing what the right thing is; being committed to doing the right thing; and doing it in the right way.

Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses , so that Christ’s power may rest on me. 2 Corinthians 12:9