"Therefore, as God's chosen people, holy and dearly loved, clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience." Colossians 3:12

Oh, the things children say . . .

When I was little, maybe seven or eight, my family and I went up to Tennessee for an extended family reunion. I don't remember much at all about the trip, but I do know that we had planned on doing some fishing.

You see, before we left, my dad had bought my sister and me each a fishing pole. They were really little compared to my dad's--but it was such a neat toy, that I couldn't wait to play with it. I think it was pink. Since my sister and I had never fished before, my dad had us practice in the backyard. He meticulously attached a rubber weight to the end of each line (understandably, no one wants their children to practice casting with real hooks!), and then showed us how to cast and reel the line back in. He left us in the backyard to do some work inside.

My sister and I climbed onto the railroad ties in our backyard, and practiced casting, waiting for pretend fish to bite, then reeling the lines back in.

My dad came back out later, after probably about an hour. He called out to us, "What are you two girls doing?" We were both watching the rubber weights that we had cast into the middle of the grass.

"Daddy," we shouted back, "We're practicing our patience!"