Patience and Forgiveness

Adam and I went to church today at God’s House in Huntington Beach.  I used to attend regularly, before I moved to orange to attend college at Chapman, and I always felt a connection to the congregation and the pastor. Everyone was very tight-knit, and after service every Sunday night we’d all go out to dinner and enjoy fellowship.

About a month ago I ran into the pastor, Pastor Eric, and a bunch of members at In-N-Out. The timing was great, because Adam and I have been trying to figure out where to go to church now that we live so far from Saddleback; it was like God provided the opportunity for me to get back in sync with God’s House.

Unfortunately (or fortunately, depending on how you look at it), Adam has been swamped with work for the past few months, working straight through weekends. I almost never get to spend any time with him, and if, by chance, he ISN’T working on a Sunday morning, he is catching up on much deserved rest. So the reality that God’s House starts late (5:30pm) was absolutely perfect. I made him promise me this weekend we’d go, because we needed to start attending regularly again, and we need to start planning Nixon’s dedication ceremony.

So, after much anticipation, today was the day! The message was about patience, and it made me really think about some ongoing problems in my life that I let drag me down. Pastor Eric reminded us that the first thing the bible says about love is that love is patient. He helped me realize that when I am impatient in my relationships with certain people it has an adverse impact on other relationships as well, including my relationship with my husband.

Pastor Eric also quoted the bible’s direction that you show patience with everyone, not just those who are easy or convenient or profitable to be patient with. I know a few people that I am definitely NOT patient with, so I know I need to work on that. 

Pastor Eric also recapped last weeks message about forgiveness, and I'm sorry we missed it! He pointed out that we should be able to forgive others, but that doesn't mean we have to interact with them or let them back into our lives to possibly commit more harm- forgiveness isn't trust, or faith, it's simply forgiveness.  Forgiveness is letting go of the animosity and hatred and frustration, and Lord knows I could use a little relief from all of those feelings right about now, as they’ve been weighing me down for almost a year now.

While I’m still unsure HOW I’m going to “fix” my issues with forgiveness and impatience, I know now that I need to make a more conscious effort to keep any conflicts I may have from influencing how I interact with my husband. I love him too much to let my impatience with others detract from the quality time we spend together.

I can’t wait for church next week!