...Be Patient....

It is a curious thing, that a title of a book you find at

a thrift store can bring back a memory you had stored

so deep in your heart, you completely forgot it.

So begins this blog.

This book's title...

Let me set up the background.

I was born to older parents, my Mom was 43 and Dad 45

when I was born, the baby of 7 children with 23 years

between my oldest sibling and myself.

So to say I was spoiled is an understatement.

The fact that I was also a sickly child, battling cancer

added to the spoiling. 

Yet by the time I was a teenager, well my Dad was just tired.

He had diabetes he did not monitor, he had

been shot in WWII in his leg and was always just a tad

miserable. I always felt loved but he and Momma 

had kind of lost the toughness of a parent.

I knew I was loved but the words were not said often.

I think I was a Sophomore when some episode happened

which I can't recall today, but I knew

my Dad was disappointed in my for something.

I felt like I could not talk to him at this point.

I wanted to somehow get across that I was sorry

but I just could not say those words.

When he was upset with us, he rarely fussed, he would just

get really quiet, shutting us out. 

I was feeling so down about it.

One afternoon during this time, I was getting ready to do 

my homework, (yes I sometimes did my homework)

and my composition had a cover that said,

"BE PATIENT WITH ME, GOD ISN'T FINISHED WITH ME YET"

Somehow I felt this would tell him that I was sorry,

I didn't mean to hurt him, I so didn't want him to be disappointed in me.

I tore off the cover and placed it on the kitchen table where he sat every

morning, waking at 4 am probably for the peace and quiet 

before the masses awakened.

I went to bed that night nervous but feeling good about 

the apology.

The next morning, as I came down the 22 steps that would

lead me to the kitchen for breakfast, i saw a frame

sitting on the end of the banister.

When I got down, I realized he had not only saw

my composition cover but had put it in 

a frame and placed it where we all would see it

each time we passed by the stairs.

There it sat until I think he passed away when I was 20,

"BE PATIENT, GOD ISN'T FINISHED WITH ME YET"

That day I asked him about it and he chuckled,

something he rarely did towards the last years of 

his life.

He didn't say much, all I remember him saying was

We all need to remember that.

Yes, the title of a simple book brought me right

where this memory lived, deep in my heart

to be brought to the surface to remind us all,

to be patient, God is not finished with us yet.