Cameras + growing in grace

So, my camera is in the shop. Ehh, well by that I mean I shipped it off to Nikon the other day in hopes that they will fix it for free.

See, my father-in-law dropped it. It was really bound to happen sometime, so I don't blame him. So David and I took it into the Nikon/Canon big camera shop in Omaha, Rockbrook Camera. They do a great business of selling and fixing cameras...except the guy took one look at the error message on my screen and said he'd never seen that error before.

Uh oh.

The plus side was he couldn't find a "ding" spot, aka an indent from dropping it, which Nikon usually looks for when they're fixing cameras that have errors usually caused from being dropped. His professional opinion was that they might fix it for free, seeing as they couldn't prove it had been dropped in the first place...so long as we didn't happen to specify that's what caused the error in the first place.

So I'm sans-lens (say that five times fast) for the next who-knows-how-long. Which isn't all that bad, because iPhone cameras are still better than my backup camera (literally, my iPhone 4S is 8MP or whatever and my old digital is 4. yikesss.).

But of course, now that it's gone, I really want to take a bunch of photos. Isn't that always how it goes?

One of my mom's favorite sayings, what she dubs the official Baker family motto, and literally had put on a plaque, is:

Most of the time, it refers to Christmas gifts or work settings. But here it refers to my camera. Of course as soon as I send it in, I want to take pictures! It's just logical, of course.

But isn't that what life usually is like? And isn't that what the sufferings of this life are usually like too? I pray for patience, but when I get opportunities to actually use that patience or grow in patience, I'm like, no thanks God, I'll try something else instead.

Or I know that I'm being selfish, and I need an opportunity (or 1000) to put someone else's needs above myself. And the next night Kate has a really hard time sleeping because she's teething, and all I do is grumble and complain about it. Instead of realizing that this is exactly what I prayed for, what I really need, and what is the best for me, I can't come to terms with it and completely miss the opportunity to grow.

The worst part is that I never realize I'm doing it til it's already past, and I'm back to praying for the virtue that I just missed a chance to practice it on. I'm back to asking God for the graces I want and need and fail to realize that He's giving me plenty of chances, and I'm just blind to them.

also, my iPhone works just fine.

So here's a (late-in-the-year) resolution: realize the times I can practice the virtues and graces I need to grow in, and actually do it. (As Dwija said it much better than I can, I'm all in.)
HG