Praying I'll become a more patient man before I die

It’s been said that patience is a virtue. If that is so my virtue is really in question these days.

Lately I’ve been short on patience, primarily with other people but sometimes in general situations.

I’ve found myself dealing with medical bills and getting them covered by insurance. It seems like nearly every bill that comes through these days is purposely left with a charge that is uncovered. I’ve begun to smell a rat and if things don’t quickly go my way in the conversation I begin losing patience with the person unlucky enough to field my call. In effect, I’ve lost patience before I ever even get on the phone.

The satellite TV company that keeps calling me since I left to try and get me back has the deck stacked against them. I know immediately what the purpose of the call is and I’m annoyed -- annoyed that they didn’t try harder to keep me as a customer and annoyed that they won’t give up. The script was the same every time and so I began answering their first question with a request I knew they couldn’t honor.

I found myself losing patience in a big way when making a purchase of a car battery when the price wasn’t coming out right because of the way they were computing the charge for the battery core. Seemed to me they were adding it on but not giving me credit. The checker didn’t even know what the core charge was so she called the floor manager and I argued with that person, then a store manager arrived and I went a round with him.

Finally, I lost it and told them to put the battery back. After the managers left I apologized to the clerk because I was a little embarrassed with the attitude I had taken.

My wife’s health situation leaves me frustrated and out of patience way more often than it should. The one person in this world that deserves every ounce of patience I can muster some days gets less than everyone else around me.

I have to remind myself that if I were recovering from my second stroke and dealing with an auto immune disease that left me fatigued and often in pain I would hope that all would show me great patience.

I pray about it but I soon find just how weak I am when I lose my patience one more time. It troubles me greatly and it’s something I’m going to keep working on and, hopefully, with God’s help and forgiveness, I’ll become a more patient man before I die.

Karl Terry writes for Clovis Media Inc. Contact him at:

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