Be completely humble and gentle; be patient, bearing with one another in love. Ephesians 4:2
When the weather is not so pretty outside, we’re forced to come up with things to do inside. For me, this is not a problem. It seems like there’s always something waiting to be accomplished. I had been running around getting everything tidy in the house when I came across two pieces of mail that needed shredded. I was on a roll so straight to the shredder I went.
Since I want to be very clear about the paper monster’s capabilities, I’m looking over the little pictures and words on it right now. It says I can fit twelve sheets of paper at a time. Not only that, I have the option of inserting credit cards, CDs, and DVDs into that persnickety, temperamental piece of office equipment.
Junk mail should not be an issue. I checked. Hazards are hands, tools, ties, aerosol products, hair, and babies. Yes, babies. I had mail. Mail should be a completely legitimate item to disappear into the cavern of shredded paper.
The way I was looking at things, if I would just drop one envelope after another to be gobbled up, I’d save time and be able to move on to the next item of business. What better way to accomplish my task quickly and efficiently? I wasn’t trying to feed it a tool, tie, or spraying it with an aerosol product. I wasn’t trying to shred my hand, hair, or a child in it. It was surely under twelve pieces of paper in my hand. Let’s go!
It started out just fine until it decided my product was not appetizing. It closed its mouth faster than my son with peas heading in his direction. It was stuck. Now, I was in a bind because I couldn’t seem to get it to go down or come back up. Since I wasn’t allowed to shred my hand, I was also trying to be safe about this little bind I got myself into.
My hubby heard what was going on. Have you ever seen the Whack-A-Mole game at an arcade? That was him. Shoot! He heard. That made me more determined to get it fixed before he made his way to where I was. So, what did I do with all my patience? Stuck another piece of paper in there. Guess what… it worked…for about a second. Now I had more stuck.
This was supposed to be a ten second job, max. Now, I have my hubby leaning over me saying, “I think it’s stuck.” You would not believe how much I appreciated his insightful comment. He informed me that it would need torn apart. How did this happen? Ok, maybe that was a teensy bit my fault. I felt it was good time management not to open the envelope. Both the shredder and my hubby didn’t agree. I see their point.
Most of the time, my hubby is pretty patient with me on my less-than-patient situations I find myself in. A word keeps popping into my mind. Long-suffering. In some Bible translations this replaces patience. As my hubby gave a long-suffering sigh, I childishly responded, “I didn’t ask for your help. I can do it myself.” I wasn’t really serious, yet it came out of my mouth.
My shredder debacle was a pretty lighthearted situation where we were able to find humor pretty quickly. However, that isn’t always the case. What about with you?
I like to take things that happen in my life and ask myself what lessons I could learn from it. Also, is there anything that I can find humorous with it. First lesson: I’m not three years old, so I shouldn’t act like it. I don’t need to do everything myself. Second lesson: Open the mail before shredding. A little bit of patience from the beginning could save a whole lot of time in the long run. Third lesson: Don’t shred babies. Come to think of it, maybe that meant not to allow children near the shredder. Maybe my picture should be there beside the little one!
You know, the dictionary says that long-suffering means having or showing patience in spite of troubles, especially those caused by other people. Is this a strong area of mine? Do I appreciate it in others? What about you?
Having called that shredder persnickety, I looked that word up in the dictionary too. It was an adjective placing too much emphasis on trivial or minor details; fussy. Hmmm
I hope you can learn a lesson or two from my experience. I’m going to suggest that we read Ephesians 4:2 a couple (or a couple hundred) times today. Then, maybe again tomorrow. How about the next day? You get what I’m saying.
