Joyous Gard: Daily Guide Archives and Text
April 2007 ~ Day 11 Education
Patience isn’t taught in a classroom.
I’m sure that many people don’t bother gathering and sending in all of the receipts and information necessary to claim the rebates that are sometimes available on items they’ve purchased. And I understand why. The manufactures seem to intentionally make the application process so difficult that most probably just give up before they begin.
Yesterday I was applying for a $50 rebate on a cell phone that I’d recently purchased. I knew that the process would be a bit of work. But I was prepared. I’d been through the process before. The original bar code label on the cardboard box had to be included along with sales receipts, a rebate application form and the first page of my most recent cell phone bill. And that, I thought, would be the trickiest piece to find.
If you’re like me, you’re probably not quite sure where to go hunt for your most recent phone bill. But I was prepared anyway. I could just get online, log into my Alltel account and call up my latest bill. Yea, that would be easy -- but only if I could remember my user ID and password. No problem. That information would be in my Palm Pilot and easy to retrieve -- unless, of course, the batteries in my Palm Pilot were dead, which they were. No problem. I’d just go to the basement and get a couple of AAA batteries. Yea, that would be easy –- unless, of course, we were out of AAAs, which we were. We had plenty of AA, C, nine volt, and D, just no AAAs. No problem. I’d just drive to the nearby all-night drug store and pick up a pack of AAAs, which I did. Well then finally, with my new batteries loaded, I fired up my Palm Pilot, retrieved my password, got online, logged in, pulled up my most recent bill and sent it to the printer – which, I discovered, was out of black ink. No problem – well, maybe not a real problem. But I did realize right then that I still had a lot more to learn about patience.
Day 11 Guide
Patience is the virtue that growth demands. Strive to be constantly at work on something that will elevate your level of patience. Give things time. You’ve heard it said: good things come to those who wait.
© 2007, Levi Hill
