Matthew 13: 44 – 46
Jesus said to his disciples:
“The Kingdom of heaven is like a treasure buried in a field,
which a person finds and hides again,
and out of joy goes and sells all that he has and buys that field.
Again, the Kingdom of heaven is like a merchant
searching for fine pearls.
When he finds a pearl of great price,
he goes and sells all that he has and buys it.”
I woke up thinking about a couple of things that have been on my heart for a couple of days.
All having to do with Pearls of Great Price (which I think would be a fab quilt) or in this case the Spiritual Gifts: Love, Joy, Peace, Patience, Kindness, Gentleness, Self-control.
I remember once praying for patience, that’s all it took, I still have people in my life wherein I am learning to be patient. This is challenging in oh so many ways. It’s not been pleasant on my part because I don’t like who I am in this moment, with this person. I don’t like not being patient with someone. I know why I’ve lost my patience and I know what’s exacerbating it.
I’ve been watching something really ugly developing in the sewing/quilting world. I’m sick over it. Really sick over it. I’ve seen this happen over and over and over again. This is really making me think about how I’ve responded to others/how I respond to others when I’m upset with them. Love and friendship in this situation have me not saying anything – impatience in the other situation has me banging my head against the nearest brick wall in sheer frustration.
Both of these situations remind me of a couple of things:
1) My impatience is causing trouble and I need to deal with it – charitably – which for my part means apologizing for my impatience.
2) Before commenting on ugliness – whether defending someone or not – think about what I’m going to say and run it by someone – just to make sure I’m not being unkind.
3) check with the person I’m defending – just to make sure what I’m saying is warranted
then do the kindness, loving, gentleness, patient check. If I’m not kind, patient, loving, gentle then DON’T do it, Don’t say it. Because that makes matters worse.
These pearls are costly.
They are worth it though. Because the people involved are worth it.
God bless!
Teri
A Quilter's Heart 
Remember those reminders we wore a while back? WWJD….What would Jesus do? Being sensitive to His heart, through the power of His Spirit, is the only way we can see others as the Lord sees them. Hugs and prayers…………………………
Learning/earning these pearls isn’t easy….or they wouldn’t be pearls…they would be glass gemstones that we could pick up at any craft market at a cheap price. The beauty in this is that one keeps trying….
We are also told not to cast our pearl among swine so we have to be careful with whom we engage. My solution when dealing with problem people and problem situations is to ask two questions: 1) Are you part of the problem? 2) Are you part of the solution? If no to both, let it/them go. If yes to either, find a constructive and loving way to solve the problem.
Indeed. I was indeed part of the problem. I understand that sometimes it’s necessary to lose one’s patience. There are just situations that merit that loss because it then is most constructive. I did talk with my coworker and have some serious hope for some changes down the road.