Stroke Recovery: Patience

I was determined that after all my suffering, especially the stuff not related directly to my stroke, future suffering would be much easier to bear in comparison. I vowed I would never be impatient again. However, when I got better, I found waiting around just as hard to bear as before. God is good, and makes the memory of bad times fade, so we do not spoil the present with pain from the past. This is great, but makes my promise hard to keep.

Patience

When I suffered, I declared:
Nothing else would make me scared.
Longest hours when not in pain,
Never would make me complain.
Patience had been learned well.
Complaint would I never tell.

But the bad is soon forgot,
So that we remember not
Hours of sickness or of pain,
So we can have joy again.
Makes my promise hard to keep –
Over little things I weep.

Help me, Lord, to keep this skill,
Learned so hard, so long, so still.
Help me, Lord, to watch and wait,
Not allow things to frustrate,
But to bear them patiently,
And always to lean on Thee.