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Quick and Slow

             You know this, my beloved brothers and sisters. Now everyone must be quick to hear, slow to speak, and slow to anger; (James 1:19)

 

            We’ve reached the busy season at the garden center where I work, which means long hours on concrete floors, and not a lot of movement. That adds up to achy ankles, knees, and/or hips for a lot of workers. For me, the worst is my right ankle, which hurts enough when I stand up that it’s hard to walk.

            Grace’s alarm went off at 5:59. Mine was supposed to go off at 6. That’s OK. But when I put her out, she wasn’t content. She wanted me to take her for a walk. When that didn’t work, she came back in (Good, the neighbors won’t shoot me!) but kept barking all through my breakfast.

            Last night, I spilled some water on the floor protector under my desk. I had to lug it outside before bed and mop up the water, but I knew I couldn’t put the protector on the floor or roll by chair across the floor until I swept up the grit. I got that done, while Grace barked, and rolled my chair back into position – across some yarn that immediately got caught in a wheel assembly. Mind you, this was before having a bite of breakfast, which means before Grace got her walk. Add to that the fact that I nearly tripped twice and there’s a small army of ants investigating my kitchen table. Oh, and today’s workday starts at 8. Do you get the picture?

            And, when I pull up the verse of the day, there it is…be quick to hear, slow to speak and…slow to anger. Sigh. So I yelled at the dog more, a little more loudly, and with more growl in my tone. After all, she wasn’t quick to hear or slow to speak. Could she blame me if I wasn’t slow to anger?

            My next thought was that God might be trying to speak and I wasn’t listening. Or that someone else was trying to make sure I wasn’t listening to God. And when I did take my walk, I didn’t talk or listen to God. I don’t even know what went through my mind, but it wasn’t prayer.

            Later, someone started in at me about our charging for the boxes. The woman asked me if anyone else was complaining about it, and I said yes, but that she was doing the best job of it that I’d seen. I don’t know if she even noticed. It was such a good line – that shouldn’t have been said. It’ll probably show up in a book.

          Life is like this. There are always things getting on our last nerves and little things that nettle us. I made it through the day, but everything crowded out the positive, the blessing I could have given, the joy I could have experienced. Life is what happens when  you’re making other plans, they say, and life got in the way of something better today because I was not quick to hear, slow to speak, or slow to anger. Did I learn my lesson? We’ll see tomorrow when other petty nonsense starts “touching” me.

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