Meet Faith and Patience
On the windowsill behind my kitchen sink, sit a plastic cup that grows grass and a rubber frog toy. I know, I’m strange.
To be honest, I “confiscated” the frog from my two youngest who were fighting over it one day. I remember hearing in high school the FROG acronym to Fully Rely On God, and I loved it, but I’ve kept that to myself. You know how people get labeled as having a thing, and everyone buys them trinkets of that thing? My mother-in-law is the gingerbread lady. At one point she had over 100 gingerbread men items displayed all over her house. It is adorable and really cool. I don’t necessarily want to be the “frog lady” with creepy, slimy frog trinkets all over my home. However, every once in a while, a cute frog will catch my attention and hold it. This is how Faith, the rubber, squeezable, toy FROG ended up on my windowsill.
Patience arrived at the beginning of the summer. Her story is equally entertaining. The five-year-old came out of her Sunday school classroom holding a cup with eyeballs glued to the side. I was told to water it and place the container in sunlight. The lesson was about patience and waiting on the Lord. I smiled broadly as I accepted the cup filled with dirt. However, the conversation in my head went like this, “Yay, another teacher has given my child another cup, pot, planter of disappointment. These things always die. I feel like a plant failure, and the kid ends up sad. Great.” Regardless, we placed the cup on the windowsill to bask in the sunlight. We watered her every three days and waited…..patiently, get it? Before leaving on a weekend trip, we noticed one blade of grass. I chuckled to myself, “Well at least the kid got something out of this lesson.” Four days later, the cup was overgrown with grass. Since then, Patience has received weekly haircuts.
I’m not telling you this to impress you with my home decor. Seeing Patience and Faith every time I walk to my sink, reminds me, Who is guiding my path. I should know this information without the use of windowsill props, but some days I need physical helpers. The past few months have tested my faith and patience daily. I don’t know about you, but I always seem to sort my mental business in the kitchen. I call them my kitchen floor moments. For some people it happens while running. For others it is hiking or painting or being still. Not me. The kitchen gets me every time.
I don’t have a typical family, especially in terms of my two teenagers. I have a special needs son who should be enjoying his senior year of high school, but instead is commuting to college without the fan fair of graduations or orientations. My fifteen-year-old and I are braving the new world of homeschool, which is something neither of us saw coming two years ago. Seeing all of the first-day-of-school and dropping-off-at-dorms pictures have been difficult this week. It’s hard to watch others enjoying things that my family should also enjoy, but can’t. We have traveled a road different from “normal” families. It is equally scary to watch our teenagers travel down roads alone. Needless to say, my emotions have been a little wonky lately.
As silly as it sounds, seeing Patience and Faith every time I walk to the kitchen sink, reminds me to redirect my thoughts. I have no idea what this school year will bring with any of my kids, but I know the One who does. Instead of worrying, I can pray for them and with them. Instead of rushing to do things for them, I can patiently watch them learn their own lessons. God has consistently stretched my faith through waiting. We waited for children. We waited on answers for our son. We waited on direction. I even waited to start writing. The waiting has led me to my knees every time. Faith helps patience, and patience grows faith.
Romans 12:12 tells us to “Be patient in affliction; be persistent in prayer.” The Apostle Paul wrote this letter to the Roman church. Chapter twelve falls into the area of the letter in which Paul teaches the Romans how to live out their faith during a time when Christians were being targeted and persecuted. He was imparting knowledge and encouragement to this group of believers. He wasn’t lecturing on some abstract theology they should profess. Paul was earnestly giving them practical advice to help them live their lives in a broken world. My daily struggles can’t touch the life of Paul. If he can be patient in affliction and persistent in prayer, surely I can do the same this school year.
I still have many needs unmet and many worries looming, but I will not focus on the fears and stress of this life. Affliction and persistence are not pretty, happy words. They evoke feelings of trials and work. Life is not easy. Raising kids is not for the weak. Every day I have to actively choose to look out my kitchen window. I will focus on God’s faithfulness to me and be patient in this affliction and persistent in prayer.
No, Patience and Faith might not make the cover of a home decor magazine, but they are staples in my kitchen. Oh, and I should probably thank Miss Cindy and Miss Becky for giving the five-year-old grass seeds in a cup. It’s about time for Patience to get another haircut.
