Does God lose His patience?

Do you ever wonder if God loses his patience? As a parent, I look to God and His word for guidance and I look to God as the ultimate example of how a parent should be. As christians, we are His children and He is our Father, afterall. So, as the ultimate example, we should strive to treat our children and behave towards them as God does towards us.

As I told my children for the umpteenth time today, "Carson! Stop jumping on the couch!", "Catherine! Do NOT dump your cheerios on the floor!", "Cameron! Pick up your cars!", "Corbin! Pick up your clothes!", I found that I was losing my patience. After being cooped up in the house for two days, and schools being closed today because of the severe storms and flooding going on here in Tennessee, we were all going a little stir crazy.

I kept encouraging them ALL to go outside and play, since the rain had finally stopped and the sun was shining. Corbin took me up on my offer, but the other three said, "Mommy! I want you!" (see the previous post to note the significance of this phrase).

Well, honestly, I was growing weary of being "wanted". In an effort not to miss an opportunity to spend quality time with my children, I decided to load all four of them up in the van, and head in to the Super Target. Our goal was to eat pizza in their little cafe, get a birthday card for Daddy, then head back to the toys and play.

Surely, I would regain my patience as the children were distracted with food, birthday talk, and toys! Hope does spring eternal, they say.

Well, after the fifth piece of pizza was dropped on the floor, the 12th whiny demand was made, and the third fork was dropped, I found myself heading down an all-too-familiar path. I took a breath and counted. Pizza was finished without much of a hitch, so we headed over to the cards. This was most unfortunate.

I think the workers at Target must cringe when they see small children heading for the cards. My children had to touch EVERY card they could reach. These were not gentle touches, either. Please let me apologize in advance, for the bent and pizza sauce-stained cards that you must now endure because of my sweet little imps. Carson was lightning fast at grabbing cards, Catherine was like a stealth bomber as she gathered her sweet sentiments, and Cameron was like a bull in a china closet on a sugar high. He just kept grabbing the cards in a shark-like frenzy, his eyes flashing wildly. Corbin, however, in all his dignified 11 years, carefully grabbed the first card he saw that had some clever remark about how old Dad was getting. His card played music when you opened it. He knew how much it would torment the other three to hear the music of the card, but not be able to "touch" it, so he opened it many, many, many times for their listening enjoyment. :-)

This is where the sibling love came into play. Carson started whining that he wanted me to buy him a card like that. Catherine had buckled her seatbelt and couldn't get loose to get at Corbin's card, so she started screaming that she wanted out. Cameron began to cry and complain that Corbin wasn't sharing. Corbin just kept explaining, rather loudly, that this was HIS card and that he didn't want any of them touching it because they'd ruin it. All of this was taking place at eardrum-piercing decible levels as people were staring at me with the kind of looks that say, "That woman needs to get her kids under control!"

Well, my patience was gone now. I took all the cards away from them, scolded each one appropriately, and threatened them all with various tortures and dungeonesque punishments if they did not quiet down this instant and stop fighting!

Everyone calmed down, we stopped and smelled the roses (literally, we did, they're right there in the front of the store!), and proceeded back to the toy department. After about an hour, we purchased the birthday cards, and headed home.

I began to wonder, then, how often we as christians push God to His limits. But that begged the question, does God have a limit? I mean, does He ever "lose it" after we've whined and complained about everything under the sun?

Patience is a virtue. Galatians 5:22-23 says: "But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, PATIENCE, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. Against such things there is no law." So, if patience is a fruit of the Spirit, and God IS the Spirit and He's perfect, then God NEVER loses his patience.

I can tell you, I know that I've pushed God harder and farther and tested Him so much more than my children could ever dream of testing me, yet He has NEVER lost his patience with me. He ALWAYS leads me back to right standing with Him. He never threatens or cajoles, He simply and lovingly corrects and calls. Yet another powerful parenting lesson I must learn.

You see, as I lost my patience with my children today, I later saw my oldest lose his patience with one of his siblings. That's the example I'm showing to my children. It's my job, as their mother, to show them God's ways, but today I showed them MY ways.

Oh God, forgive me! I pray that tomorrow I can be a better example of Galatians 5:22 to my children and exhibit the fruits of YOU rather than the fruits of my own imperfect and sinful nature.