Patiently and Carefully

I am not a good sewer; I've never had lessons or been professionally taught. What I do know is all self-taught, and I'm not very good at it.

Yesterday I spent several hours sewing. I needed to make some repairs on Katelyn's uniforms, I needed to fill in the slits on a skirt that I bought for Katelyn, and I needed to sew a small triangle into a V-neck sweater to make it modest.

I realized that most of the repairs would require some hand-sewing, which would take patience and carefulness, two traits that do not come easy for me, which is probably why I'm not very good at sewing. But I took the time yesterday to do the job carefully and correctly, and the uniforms and skirt came out beautifully. I was proud.

Then I picked up the sweater. I was getting tired, but wanted to finish that last job. I thought about hand-basting the triangle in before sewing, but decided that the job was so easy that I didn't need to take the time. I just inserted the sweater and piece of material under the foot and sewed away.

Incorrectly.

I totally messed up the sweater. And, the stitches are impossible to get out. I tried to cut it and cut a hole in the sweater. I'm not sure if I can fix the mistake or not. If I can fix it, it's going to take some patience and carefulness.

I was thinking about my sewing as I was cutting up the ham that we had for dinner last night. I knew that I wanted some nice ham slices for dinner this week. And, this particular ham was very fatty, so I had to cut very carefully to separate every little piece of ham from the fat. I didn't want to waste any of the ham, and I didn't want lots of pieces filled with fat. I felt like a surgeon welding a scalpel as I patiently and carefully cut up that ham.

Patiently and carefully.

My mind couldn't help moving to a spiritual application of this lesson. How many times do I go through my prayers quickly and sloppily, not wanting to take the time to cultivate my relationship with the Lord? How many times do I hasten through my Bible reading, not being careful to apply the truths to my life?

My pastor made a statement a few weeks ago that has become a part of my daily prayer. He said that we need to have such a relationship with the Lord that we crave talking to him, just as we would a lover.

Pastor reminded me of when Jim and I were dating. We would spend hours together on a date. Then, when we got home, we would talk for hours on the phone. We never seemed to get tired of talking or run out of things to say. We never felt guilty about having to talk to each other, just because it was our appointed time.

Our relationship with Jesus, the Lover of our Soul, needs to be no less. We should crave to talk with Him, share every detail with Him, never grow tired of talking with Him, look forward to meeting with Him, talking with Him not just at our appointed time of prayer, but any chance we get.

This relationship with our Heavenly Father takes patience and carefulness.

I want to take the time and make the effort to cultivate a relationship with God, even more than I want to use up every bit of that ham or save that sweater.

Hams and Sweaters are temporal. My relationship with the Lord is eternal.