My Biggest Struggle
I mean we all struggle, right? We all have that one (or maybe more than one) thing that we’re continually trying to improve about ourselves. For the longest time, I couldn’t put a label on what it was exactly. I wasn’t ashamed of it, we’re all human, and we all have character flaws; I just could not adequately express it. I always thought it was a problem with patience, but there was still something more to it. Patience wasn’t my entire issue, after all, I’ve always been patient with pedestrians and baristas of course. It was more than that, and it was eating me alive!
I’m so blessed to have fantastic leadership in my life. My role model and my style icon/executive pastor’s wife helped me figure out the biggest mystery of my entire life. So there we were talking during an extremely luxurious lunch (Whataburger kid’s meals in the drive-thru), and I was dumping all my problems into the universe. She said, “You know Aneissa, you sound a lot like me when I was younger, and you know that you struggle with…
T O L E R A N C E
Hello, what? It was absolutely simple. Like really one word. That’s the one word I was looking for my entire adult life? Some learners are definitely slower than others, and I was apparently the captain of team struggle bus. Everything she said after that was like she was illegally reading my mail! She went on to explain how when she was younger she used to get so frustrated when people didn’t see things from her point of view. -Same! Mainly because I try so hard to understand where people are coming from so, I can analyze a situation without being biased. Also- how she would internally question why people did things a certain way, working harder, not smarter. Uh, SAME! I used to blurt out why people were “wrong,” but thank the Lord I’ve been getting better about that and usually watch until my eye twitches + I have to look away. This precious angel of the Lord delivered a custom-made Aneissa sermonette sitting in her SUV in between bites of fries smothered in spicy ketchup. She told me exactly what I needed to hear and what my next steps should be in order to become a better person. Identifying the problem was simple, and the solution was easy as well. I need the Lord’s help. I need to see people the way He sees people, and I need to work on continuing my development of a Christ-like love that embraces people no matter what. So if you listen to Christmas music before Thanksgiving, if you pronounce it EX-presso instead of espresso, or if you stop at recently changed yellow lights, just know, that He’s still working on me and I’m learning to tolerate you! I’m joking, but I am working on my Christ-like love. XOXO
