I think God must be trying to teach me patience.

"Why is that, Ariel?" you ask. "Well because I have had the most terrible time lately doing business with certain companies" I reply.

Exhibit A: I ordered a couple of new shirts and they were supposed to be delivered to my house through the good ol' United States Postal Service on August 18th.

That's 35 days ago. And I still don't have those shirts. And I've been to the post office 6 times and talked with the postmaster 3 times to try to find my package. Interestingly enough, we're now on a first-name basis and I have his cell number. Anyway, when I talked to him today he said he was gonna get to the bottom of this. So I guess we'll see if that happens or not.

Exhibit B: Awhile back I had bought some Spira running shoes - the uber-cool running shoes with springs in them - and ended up returning them and was given a store credit. A couple of weeks later I went back to get some different shoes and was told by the employee that she could not "release the shoes" to me because she didn't know how the store credit worked. She said only the manager knew how to do that. So I went back, talked with the manager, and got fitted for a new pair of running shoes but they didn't have the ones I wanted in my size. So he put an order in for them and told me they'd "be here on Saturday" and assured me that anyone could handle the store credit exchange.

So I go back on Saturday and the shoes aren't there. "They'll be here on Wednesday" I'm told. I go on Wednesday and they're not there. The manager calls me on Thursday and tells me the shoes are in. I go in that afternoon and the manager isn't there and surprise, surprise: only the manager can handle the store credit thing.

I call back today, talk with the assistant manager, and he assures me that my shoes are in and that he can release the store credit. I ask him "are you sure that if I go down there, I will leave with the shoes?" and he assures me that I will. So I go down there, he gives me the shoes, and as he's working on releasing the store credit, I open the box and find that there are some stains and glue on the shoes. The assistant manager tells me those are the only ones they have left in my size.

At this point, I'm about ready to freak out - but instead I stay composed and bite my tongue, wishing the man a good afternoon and walking away with my new, stained running shoes.


The only explanation I can figure for all of this trouble I've been having is that God must be working on my character, making me more patient - which is a good thing.

But it's definitely not fun.

"You must have the same attitude that Christ Jesus had." - Philippians 2:5, NLT