Sixty Seven
Did you know that there are two types of patience? Maybe somewhere in the back of my mind I understood this, but it wasn't until just recently that the Lord truly brought this to my attention. In the summer of 2010 we began the process of adopting our sweet little girl. During that time I learned the type of patience we associate with waiting. And waiting, and WAITING and W A I T I N G. When it came time to bring Livy home, I proudly declared myself to be a patient person (as laughter erupts from Heaven.) Little did I know how impatient I actually was/am. True, I had learned to lean on God's timing, but patient I was not.
Enter 4 children.
Here's another thing you may not know. When you add a child you do not add at all. Oh no. This goes back to math class. It's not 3 children plus 1 equals the work of 4 individual children. Nope. Wrong equation. When you add a child the work increases exponentially, as in: child to the 4th power. You know, where you take the number and multiply it by itself, that many times. So, if a single child makes 3 messes a day, then 2 children make 9, 3 children make 27, and 4 children can make up to 81 messes a day. And therein lies the other type of patience. Remaining calm in the midst of disaster. I'm admittedly not very good at this. I realized when Tavis came home at night I was at the end of my very short rope. In an attempt to pinpoint the exact moment when I went over the edge each day, I decided to do a little experiment. I counted. Every time I heard a "Mommy could you," or "Mommy, I need," or "Mommy, will you," I counted the request. By lunch I was at sixty seven requests from my children of needs, wants, and messes to be cleaned. You read that right. 67. I gave up counting at that point. Who can keep up?
Even though I have since implemented a policy on the number of things you may ask Mommy for in one day, I also realize that I'm far from where I need to be when it comes to being patient with my children. They are little and they are going to do things like have tea parties in the bathroom with the toilet water, or paint your sister's head with diaper rash cream. It does not mean that I'm allowed to lose my patience with the sweet little boogers. God remains patient with me when I sin and He expects me to do the same with those under my care. Really in the end, the two types of patience tie back to a similar theme. Waiting. Waiting for something to happen, or waiting for my children to be obedient. Either way, it's trusting God to work during that time without getting frustrated. And THAT, I'm going to work on. I don't think I'm the only one. :-)
Enter 4 children.
Here's another thing you may not know. When you add a child you do not add at all. Oh no. This goes back to math class. It's not 3 children plus 1 equals the work of 4 individual children. Nope. Wrong equation. When you add a child the work increases exponentially, as in: child to the 4th power. You know, where you take the number and multiply it by itself, that many times. So, if a single child makes 3 messes a day, then 2 children make 9, 3 children make 27, and 4 children can make up to 81 messes a day. And therein lies the other type of patience. Remaining calm in the midst of disaster. I'm admittedly not very good at this. I realized when Tavis came home at night I was at the end of my very short rope. In an attempt to pinpoint the exact moment when I went over the edge each day, I decided to do a little experiment. I counted. Every time I heard a "Mommy could you," or "Mommy, I need," or "Mommy, will you," I counted the request. By lunch I was at sixty seven requests from my children of needs, wants, and messes to be cleaned. You read that right. 67. I gave up counting at that point. Who can keep up?
Even though I have since implemented a policy on the number of things you may ask Mommy for in one day, I also realize that I'm far from where I need to be when it comes to being patient with my children. They are little and they are going to do things like have tea parties in the bathroom with the toilet water, or paint your sister's head with diaper rash cream. It does not mean that I'm allowed to lose my patience with the sweet little boogers. God remains patient with me when I sin and He expects me to do the same with those under my care. Really in the end, the two types of patience tie back to a similar theme. Waiting. Waiting for something to happen, or waiting for my children to be obedient. Either way, it's trusting God to work during that time without getting frustrated. And THAT, I'm going to work on. I don't think I'm the only one. :-)