God's Ability & My Inability

You know, I really like God's sense of humor. And I just happened to experience it this morning. As I was praying this morning, I was praying for my patience. You see, I'm not exactly the most self-controlled person in the world... someone can annoy me once and
BOOM
You'll hear my anger from three and a half miles away. I know that I need more self-control and patience with others, but it isn't exactly my strong point. But like I was saying, I was praying for self-control today, and I actually prayed that I would be given a chance today to have self-control. Of course, as I was praying I was picturing a perfect moment to show my own self-control. Mhmm. I was gonna see it coming. I was going to know it was coming. And then, like a little angel with a shiny halo, I would smile sweetly and be nice and kind.
Wow.
I apparently haven't learned enough about myself yet.
So just a few hours after this, I was at my piano lesson. I have a couple of piano competitions in about two weeks. Well, right before competitions and recitals, my teacher gets really super nit-picky. Which sometimes bothers me, and sometimes doesn't. Well this morning, it was bothering me. A lot. You see, me, I'm a perfectionist. So not only was I mad at myself for continually messing up, but I was getting unbelievably annoyed with my teacher for being so nit-picky. I was losing it. Obviously, with my piano teacher, I can't be bluntly rude, but I could tell my tone of voice was picking up a lot of frustrated sounds. Kind of a sarcastic tone. And as my lesson went on, my patience got more and more tried. And then, it hit me like a bullet, and I nearly started laughing. This was my opportunity to lose my cool or stay alert and honor God. Through my frustration I was just sitting there smiling. I was laughing at myself for thinking this morning that I could be self-controlled by myself.
This really taught me a lesson - this morning, even though I was sitting there praying, I was sure that I would be able to do it all myself. Well, I can't. I can't be patient through my own power. The frustration I felt at my lesson showed me only God can give me the patience and self-control I need to honor Him. I like how God continues to show me just how incapable I am to do good without Him.