“Might not be what I would choose, but this is the stuff You use to break me of impatience, conquer my frustrations, I’ve got a new appreciation--it’s not the end of the world.”
I’m convinced now more than ever that God has a sense of humor. Sometimes I can’t help but wonder if He allows me to see certain things for a reason, certain things others might not be aware of, yet they happen to catch my attention. An example?

I was out shopping by myself recently--something I don’t do all too often--so I was enjoying being to able to look at things and take my time. As I was walking across the way of this little strip mall, I couldn’t help but peek inside the front window of another clothing store and see two guys inside, sitting at the children’s table in front of the store, drawing in the coloring books. The sight was enough to make me actually go inside the store to make sure I wasn’t crazy. Turns out, my eyes weren’t playing tricks on me. The two boys, well into their teens, were sitting at the table drawing while their mom went shopping for herself. The best part? They were quite content to be there--very quiet, just coloring away.

My first reaction would have been the same as anyone who saw it--I started to crack up. Let’s face it, when you see something like that, it’s hard not to laugh. But as I started browsing through other stores that afternoon, the thought dawned on me that those boys were exhibiting something we are sometimes all too quick to ignore: patience.

What I saw led me back to my own childhood, which really isn’t that far of a trip down memory lane. One of the things I absolutely HATED more than anything was going shopping with my parents. Sometimes we’d only be gone half an hour, but to a five-year-old, half an hour can feel like a year. If I wasn’t involved in the shopping somehow, I’d sit there and in utter agony, whining and complaining about every slow-moving second.

Every once in a while, if my mom or dad knew we’d be gone awhile, they would offer to buy me something special--if I was patient and didn’t complain. Honestly, more times than I’d like to admit, I failed miserably at this task and went home with nothing more than a whooping later that night. Yet there were those few rare occasions when I would look forward to the reward more than the task of waiting. I’d sit there quietly in the cart, and just as they said, at the end of the trip I’d be rewarded. Nothing ever too big, maybe a candy or cheap Barbie doll, but it was enough to make to realize that my patience was worth the reward.

Contrary to popular belief, impatience is something we don’t grow out of once we’re older. As we grow, we have more to complain about. Like when you sit in traffic at rush hour, yelling at the driver in front of you who cut you off, while the car next to you blares their gangster rap. It’s stuff like this that can drive us insane, but it’s also stuff like this that makes us forget how big of a gift patience really is.

Think about Abraham in the Book of Genesis. They don’t call him the father of our faith for nothing. He and his wife Sarah waited 20 years for God’s promise of a son to manifest in their lives. 20 years! Can you imagine what that wait must have felt like, wondering if what God said ever was going to happen? This man waited 20 years in patience for God’s promise to come, and after 20 years of waiting, their son Isaac was finally born. Did he do everything perfectly? No. But the moment he put his patience into action and his faith in God, his life changed. It sure puts our hour of sitting in traffic into perspective, doesn’t it?

My favorite line in Francesca Battistelli new song “This Is The Stuff” is the line "This is the stuff You use to break me of impatience, conquer my frustrations." We are so quick to get angry at the little stuff around us, not realizing that, as frustrating as some of these things may be, our world isn’t going to come crashing down, and if we just stick stuff out with a good attitude, we are the ones who walk away blessed. Much like Abraham and Isaac, much like me with my parents, with patience and self-control come great rewards. I might not always like the time in-between, sometimes it’s going to seem never-ending, and most of the time it’s not going to feel good, but when I allow patience to have its perfect work in me (James 1:4), I find that I wind up with much more than I sacrificed by getting upset.

Thinking of those teenage boys sitting in the clothing store coloring quietly that day is something that I will always look back on with a laugh (let’s face it, it’s funny). But it’s also God’s humorous way of reminding me that while silly stuff like waiting in traffic, looking for missing keys or even waiting for your parents while they shop might seem like stuff that can rob us of our sanity, they are ultimately the things that reward us with the gift of patience. Next time you're faced with one of these small-yet-cumbersome challenges, I encourage you to take a deep breath, remember that your world isn’t going to come crashing down, and let God perfect the gift of patience in your life. In the end, I think you’ll find that Francesca said it best: “I’ve got a new appreciation.”