"Mommy he didn't make my ear better!"

Shane has been sick for about a week now. It started with the croup last Friday night and he hasn't been feeling that great since. He woke up about 4:30am this morning, with an earache. Normally I would not rush off to the Dr. after one night of an earache but we are about to switch insurance policies and I wanted to get him in to the Dr. before that happened. So I called to get him in for an appointment and told Shane that we were going to the Dr. and that the Dr. would make his ear feel better. So the Dr. looked in Shane's ear and immediately said that Shane had a bad ear infection. The Dr. let me look in Shane's ear - OUCH - it was so red it looked like it was bleeding. Poor little guy. The Dr. gave me a prescription and sent us on our way. I was putting on Shane's jacket and we started walking out, Shane stopped, looked up at me and said, "Mommy, the Dr. didn't make my ear feel better." I laughed and told him that the Dr. was giving us some medicine to make his ear feel better and that we needed to go get the medicine at the store. He looked at me confused and irritated that he had to wait for his ear to feel better.
As I was thinking about what Shane said and how he felt. I was thinking about how that is exactly how I am with God sometimes. When I pray for something or about something, when I'm done and a day has gone by (or sometimes even just an hour) I think, hey, my "problem" isn't fixed or I prayed about that and nothing changed - what happened? I don't say it out loud but in my heart that is sometimes how I feel. What a wrong way to think, that God should just automatically "fix" it or "fix" me. Because that is what a lot of my prayers are about, "Lord, help me be more patient with the kids, help me be less selfish etc.." Then a half hour after I pray the kids are fighting and I'm yelling - NOT BEING PATIENT. And I think, hey, I prayed about that a half hour ago and yet here I am being impatient - what happened God - why didn't You help me be patient. HELLO KENDRA - why do you think the kids are fighting?! Could it be that God is giving me an opportunity to be patient? OOPS, I missed it. Just like Shane went to the Dr and expected to be "fixed" right away without having to take any medicine. I expect to be "fixed" right away without the "medicine" of opportunity to "fix" me. My words of my prayer are, "Lord, make me more patient." But my heart is saying, "Lord, change the kids and my circumstances so that I don't have to be patient." I don't know if that hits anyone else like it hit me today but I hope that I do not quickly forget what God has shown me today! May I look at every thing, whether it's a sick child or family member, a difficult child or circumstance, a bad day etc - may I look at all things as a way for God to refine me giving me the "medicine" I need to make me more like Him - so that ultimately He is GLORIFIED.
"But He said to me, "My grace is sufficient for you, for My power is made perfect in weakness." Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ's power may rest on me. That is why, for Christ's sake, I delight in weaknesses, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties. For when I am weak, then I am strong." 2 Corinthians 12:9-10
This is a quote from radio program I listen to, Nancy Leigh DeMoss, "What is God’s grace? God’s grace is God’s resources: His strength, His power, His goodness, His light, all that He is. It’s His resources available to us. It's His resources that are sufficient for every problem and every situation that every child of God will ever face. There is never a lack, never a shortage."