Patience is a...World Cup victory

I am sure many of you watched the USA vs Japan World Cup soccer game a few days ago. I certainly am not a soccer fanatic but that was an AWESOME game of athleticism, patience, fortitude and sportsmanship.

The game had me on the edge of my seat until the very end. It was heartbreaking to see the US team lose in the end, but the Japanese team surely deserved the win and persevered to the very end.

There is a saying that "patience is a virtue" and indeed, this is true. Patience is a virtue and one that grows (like all virtues do) when it is tried.

Wouldn't we all just like to wake up one day and just "be patient" in its fullness? a life where we could stand in endless lines, encounter difficult people and even put up with ourselves and not "have our feathers ruffled"? ah, bliss.......(begin dream sequence here....)

However, life isn't quite like that. Many times we feel and can act like MLB player Brian Wilson (below) and just lose it....


Patience grows when it is tried. We become more patient when we are put in situations that are difficult and trying. Say, for example (hypothetically, of course), there was a situation where you got stuck on an airport runway on a hot, cramped airplane for over two hours and then your luggage was lost and then you had to wait a couple hours to get home because the shuttle service was horrendous and the local driver from the shuttle service was asking you for driving directions and then your purse broke and your watch stopped, all in a matter of a few days, this would (hypothetically, still) be very trying and you might feel like pulling a Brian Wilson on your water bottle.

but, you realize, you have a choice.

You realize that these are the exact situations that you can offer to God. You can offer them up to Him and choose to smile and be kind to other people. You might not do it perfectly but you at least try. And when you do this, you get a little stronger each time.

And that's the whole point. We truly are the little children of God and as little children are prone to do, we learn things one step at a time. This is what we call life. Sometimes we fall down, sometimes we make mistakes and sometimes we fail. The most important thing is that we get back up again, seek forgiveness and try.

Oh, by the way, that water cooler in the video clip survived, later on in the baseball game, the camera showed that someone had popped it back to its original shape and put band aids on it :)