Love is patient and kind

Impatience. How frustrated I get when things happen on someone else's schedule. Something that I think should happen in an hour takes three. Something I want tomorrow takes a week to arrive. Even water takes too long to boil. I am, by nature, an impatient person.

At the same time, I've been on the receiving end of someone else's impatience. My husband or son, most often. Why was I 10 minutes late? Can we go already? Can't we do this errand some other time?

Unfortunately, I know why the frustration. I know other people don't share my priorities. What is important to me isn't important to them, and vice versa. And in many cases, I haven't allowed enough time for my task. The store doesn't have enough cashiers at the time I want to check out. The customer service department has a wait time of 20 minutes because I called at a high demand time. The highway isn't moving as fast as I want it to move, because many drivers are trying to get to the same place at the same time.

I get irritated. I grit my teeth. I try to go around the problem. And usually it gets me nowhere. Sometimes I am not very understanding. I am unpleasant to people who have no more control over the situation than I do.

Is it any wonder that the infamous words about love in 1 Corinthians 13 start out with "Love is patient and kind"? I'm thinking of these words today, my 29th anniversary. Paul must have understood so well that impatience and unkindness are relationship bridge-burners. I sit here, knowing that my impatience and unkindness to my best friend has been the cause of many arguments. And my lack of remorse and stubbornness has prolonged those uncomfortable moments.

Before our 30th anniversary, my goal is to work on my 1st Corinthians 13 faults. I stand convicted and human before these words of love's perfection. I am gifted with a husband who loves me so much, in spite of my faults.