Where you go, I will go; where you live, I will live. Your people will be my people for your God is my God.

Friday, April 8, 2011

Paperwork and a Lesson on Patience.

It is said, “Patience is a virtue”, but it is not a virtue of mine.  I have always thought however, that it would be a good thing to learn, even from the young age of nine. 

At this point in my life there were five kids in my family, four of them girls.  I am not sure how it worked out, but I somehow had my own room.  This was a rare thing indeed, and not a thing I remember experiencing until that point.  Within a few weeks I was “convicted” about my lack of patience and made the decision to learn to have it.  So I invited my younger sister to share my lovely room  and thus double bed with me.  Let’s just say when you put a seven-year-old free spirited why-do-something-today-if-you-can-do-it-next-week child with a nine-year-old bossy perfectionist spirit child, patience was *not* the theme of that chapter of our lives.  If it had a title it would be more like “World War III”.  Not even duct tape to divide the room and the bed, did nothing ease the tension. 

In the following 13 years of my life, many people have come across my path who have given me the opportunity to learn patience.  And I would have thought that it was a thing that was slowly but surely becoming a part of my character.  I finally thought that I would be  able to say “Patience is a virtue, of mine!”  But alas I have realized that it is still not to be….

Oh, I have plenty of patience with little kids or old people or a dear friend or the poor person who just doesn’t know any better, but I am finding that I have absolutely no patience for the people who should know better.  Like the lady who screamed at her daughter in the bakery, “Um excuse me?! You are a mother.  Its your job to do it right!”  Or the bookkeeper who did not get me my tax form from a job I worked at last year until after the deadline.   “Um, hello?!?  You are the bookkeeper!  You should keep the books right!”

And then the most recent. Our marriage license.  We got married January 3rd and still do not have a correct marriage license.  They gave us one back in February, but has a lot of mistakes.  Mistakes that prevent me from being able to use it to send need paperwork for both of our visas.  {One for me in Mexico, so that I can stay longer than 180 days, and the other one for a visa for Rafa so he go to the US. Both are pretty straight forward processes when all the paperwork is in order.}  

I have gone at least once a week, if not several times since returning at the end of February to got a corrected copy of our marriage license.   Many times they lady who does the marriage paperwork is not there, as she does the same work in other towns.  “Come on Tuesday, and it will be here.”  I am told, but come Tuesday, and the lady is not even there.  And then I’m told that when I come the next time I will have to bring money because it is a certified copy.  “What?!” I think, “I’m not the one who  made the mistake in the first place, why should I have to give out more money!?”   [It is beside the point that it is less than 5 dollars, it’s the principle that counts!] 

I went in today a bit more tranquilla. Still no [correct] marriage license, but progress was made and a promise that I’ll have it next week.  As I walked home, I thought about the people I rub shoulders with while I am there and how they watch my reactions.  How God has put me there for a reason, seeing, waiting, and chatting with the same people every week.  When I thought about it like that, my disgust with the whole thing seemed a bit ridiculous.  And then I thought about the lack of patience I have…..and back to sharing a room with my sister.  God is concerned with my character, and I should be more concerned about it, and the people around me, than with a little ol’ piece of paper.

Patience is a virtue, and hopefully, one day, it will be a virtue of mine.  No matter what the circumstances. 

1 comment:

  1. I'm a work in progress in the patience department too :-)

    ReplyDelete