Patience

If you know me very well at all, you know I lack patience. 

This is a HUGE thing I'm planning to work on this year, but I forgot about it until yesterday. Yesterday I had the ultimate pleasure of visiting the DMV to get my new license since my wallet was stolen and I've been driving around illegally {shh}. I walked in the building confident it would be a short ordeal since I had all of my paperwork ready. It turned into a three hour errand.

As I was flipping through the North Carolina driving manual {because I had to take the written test} I slowly ran out of patience. A person behind me was clipping their nails, another person was playing games on their phone with the volume up so we could hear every sound effect, another person was playing music out loud from their phone, and then another person came in smelling like cigarettes and it started giving me a headache. On top of all of that I kept watching person after person be called before me when they arrived after me. Once my number was finally called they couldn't find my information in the computer and I had to take the driving test. To put the cherry on top of everything I have to wait for my license to come in the mail.

So, needless to say, I spent three hours of my day thoroughly frustrated. All I kept thinking about was the jerks people who stole my wallet in the first place.

After making a few other quick stops, I made it home, changed into some comfortable clothes and reflected on the experience. What it boils down to is this: Yes, sitting at the DMV for three hours isn't ideal, but there were a ton of people there so it's not like I was the only one sitting there waiting to be helped. When I thought about how mad all the people in the waiting room made me, I started to get a little frustrated with myself. It's absolutely none of my business what these people are doing, they aren't hurting me or anyone else, so I have no right to sit in judgement.
Having to wait for my ID to come in the mail is a little annoying, but what is the point in getting frustrated over things I can't control?!

There is no point, right? 

I think a lot of the frustrations I experience come from not being able to control everything.
{Can you pick out a theme yet?}
One thing my mom has been trying to pound into my brain for the longest time is:
"you can't control what anyone else does, you can only control how you react to it"
Those are some wise words right there. 

As I continue this journey of bettering myself this year, learning to lean on God for strength and wisdom to have more patience with myself and others is a top priority. 
If I can get that under let go of control I can be will be a much happier individual.