Patience.... Will I ever learn?

This morning I got reminded of patience once again, and if you know me well I'm tired of learning the lesson of patience. This is a season full of it. But I had a very apt reminder this morning. 

As you might or might not know our older dog Casey has seizures. She takes multiple medicines to keep them in check, and thankfully they're working wonderfully. At first, trying to get her to take her medicine was an unenjoyable act of shoving pills down her throat (something that wasn't fun for either of us) until one day, I wrapped her medicines in a slice of turkey. She now "happy feet dances" every morning and evening waiting for her medicine. She knows she gets a treat, but wrapped in it is the medicine that keeps her functioning and happy. 

However, what she doesn't understand that sometimes I need 10 minutes to scroll on the couch before starting my morning with her medicine. But that doesn't stop her from poking her head up under my hand or her happy dance, or her being vocal.

This morning Casey didn't understand patience or for my morning coffee to kick in. My asking her to "wait" only works for so long. But what she does know is how "exciting" her medicine is. Sometimes I don't understand why patience is a lesson that I keep learning. The education training in me knows that means I didn't learn it well the first time so I had to go back for additional instruction after school. But I feel like at this point I'm in summer school and still failing.

All of this is to say I feel like I'm in a holding pattern, I'm really thankful for the time and the lessons, but part of me wishes that I just had a glimpse of the future so I would know what is to come. I know several others in my life who also feel this "what is happening, what am I here for, what should I do" limbo. 

This might be a bad analogy, but just how Casey waits in the mornings for her medicine and doesn't understand that I just need a minute before I give them to her, at this moment I'm also Casey, knowing something good will come, but it just needs some time. I wish I knew when God would be done "sipping his morning coffee" for this analogy, but I know something good is to come. So in the meantime, I'll enjoy my morning coffee, time with family, and the road to the next adventure. 

A few quotes and scriptures that might help you like they've helped me in this time: 

"Embrace the mess, that's where the good stuff lives" -Only Murders in the Building episode 4. Tina Fey delivered this line while I was typing this and I stopped to write it down. Right now I feel like I'm in the mess and there's been lots of good, it's just been an interesting way to get there. 

"Therefore I tell you, do not be anxious about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink, nor about your body, what you will put on. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothing? Look at the birds of the air: they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they? And which of you by being anxious can add a single hour to his span of life? And why are you anxious about clothing? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow: they neither toil nor spin, yet I tell you, even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these. But if God so clothes the grass of the field, which today is alive and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, will he not much more clothe you, O you of little faith? Therefore do not be anxious, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’ For the Gentiles seek after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them all. But seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you.

Therefore do not be anxious about tomorrow, for tomorrow will be anxious for itself. Sufficient for the day is its own trouble." Matthew 6:25-34. During this season of worry, anxiety, and apprehension of the future this scripture keeps coming to mind. There's been a lot to worry about, but at the end of the day I have no control over lots of things that can cause anxiety in anyone's life and I just have to learn to be patient and trust that there's a greater plan at play and believe in that. 

This is all easier to say than to do. But I just thought if I know enough people going through this maybe someone else might need it too.