Verse of 2011

Since God chose you to be the holy people he loves, you must clothe yourselves with tenderhearted mercy, kindness, humility, gentleness, and patience.
~ Colossians 3:12

This verse spoke to me. It is what I want for myself for 2011. I more often than not feel like I am crumbling in all 5 of these important areas. I fully understand that this is because my entire life revolves around needing to show mercy, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience in all that I do with my children and husband. I fail daily, but this verse is a tremendous reminder that God longs for me to emulate these characteristics as much as my human flesh is capable of.

I decided to look up the meaning of all five just for a better grasp...here's what I found.

Mercy: compassionate or kindly forbearance shown toward an offender, an enemy, or other person in one's power; compassion, pity, or benevolence
Kindness: Kindness is the act or the state of being kind and marked by charitable behaviour, marked by mild disposition, pleasantness, tenderness and concern for others.
Humility: the quality or condition of being humble; modest opinion or estimate of one's own importance, rank, etc.
Gentleness: kindly; amiable; not severe, rough, or violent; mild and soft
Patience: the quality of being patient, as the bearing of provocation, annoyance, misfortune, or pain, without complaint, loss of temper, irritation, or the like.

I long to be ALL of these. The one that resonated the most was...drumroll...PATIENCE! Shocking I know :) I love that it says "without complaint, loss of temper or irritation". This is by far the hardest thing for me.
Being a parent is learning to die to yourself daily. To put anothers needs ahead of your own at all costs. I would give my life without a seconds hesitation for my children, yet it is so hard for me to sacrifice my quiet time during nap if we've had a rough day or my physical space if I am exhausted. That makes no sense on paper, but I know that it's the truth and it's where patience comes in. I want to be the best at all that I do and not complain or grumble or let the irritation of daily frustrations get to me. Even better, I know I cannot accomplish any of this on my own. So, enter verse daily and time in prayer. Lord, do your work!
Just a great verse and wanted to share.