help me to be more loving, more compassionate, more forgiving, more understanding, more caring, more patient. help me to see others as you see them. help me to trust deeply and leap blindly in faith.
amazing thing is, when i pray that prayer, i am surrounded by people and things that are hard for me to be patient with or loving with or understanding with. God doesn't just fill us with love and patience and kindness and goodness and faithfulness and gentleness and self-control. He takes us on a journey where those characteristics are tempered in our lives. you can't truly be loving until you love someone that is hard for you to love. you can't be patient until you experience something that stretches you beyond your limit of patience. you can't be more like Jesus just by wanting it...He takes us on a journey where He stretches and reshapes and remolds us and it will not be easy, but it will be wonderful and we will grow into an incredible reflection of all that Jesus is.
i think so many people use the excuse of 'that's just the way i am.' it's a license to not be loving, to be impatient, to put my needs first, to act how i want to act despite the impact it has on those all around you. it is so easy to write things off on our 'temperament' instead of admitting out loud that we need to allow God to work in our lives to help us overcome our shortfallings. it is so hard to admit that we need help or the ugly parts in our life, isn't it?
we are all works in progress. Jesus is not finished with us here on earth and His desire is for each of us to be all that God made us to be--to be loving, caring, patient, understanding, thoughtful, selfless people that love and worship Him and love each other for the unique creatures He made each one of us to be.
i will pray it again...'help me to be more like Jesus today than i was yesterday'
despite knowing that i have much to work on today, that i have a long way to go in my journey.
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