You better not pray for that

I remember one time talking with my youth pastor's wife when I was in high school and she somewhat jokingly told me not to pray for patience.  I can't remember what my circumstances were but she told me if I pray for patience God will teach me patience.  That he will give me situations where my patience will be tested.  

Obviously she didn't really mean to not pray for it, but to be ready to learn if I ask God for something.  To not expect to just acquire new characteristics but to only gain them through hard situations.  
I feel like I learned this when I chose my word for the year last year.  Surrender.  God taught me to surrender constantly.  To surrender my timing for a baby.  To surrender my fears and uncertainties when my mom had heart surgery.  To surrender the health of my baby when we had complications.  I prayed to God that I wanted to surrender to His plans, and he gave me many circumstances where I had to work to surrender. 
This year I am trying to learn how to rest.  How to find peace in where God has me.  How to rest in His promises that He will take care of our family.  How to be still and not fill my time and minutes with ten different things.  Honestly I am not doing a great job at these and I think its because I'm not trying and I'm not praying for opportunities.  
I started reading the book Seven, by Jen Hatmaker the other night and so far I love it.  The premise of the book is that she focused on seven different areas (one a month) that she lived in excess of.   But I found myself being tempting to just read it.  Just read through the words and not think about how that may apply to my life.    My thoughts were first that this will be a nice story for someone and is a really neat thing they are doing, but not for me.  I am not saying I am going to be doing any kind of radical thing like only choosing seven foods to eat for a month (like she did) or not watch tv for a full month.  I have barely started reading the book, but I want to approach it differently and I want to start approaching my days differently too. 
I feel kind of stuck in my spiritual life.  I feel like I am not growing and not seeking out opportunities for God to use me.  I'm aware my life is filled with excess of worldly things.  Tv, clothes, blogging, uncontentment in my thinking, jealously . . . I could keep going. I want to go into reading the rest of this book with a mindset that God may be trying to teach me something.  To make some changes in my life.  I want to start my days asking God for opportunities to teach me things, even though I know that means that I will be tested and stretched and probably uncomfortable.  
I know that I can't expect to gain wisdom, patience, or even the mentality of how to rest in God if I don't pray for it.  So today I am asking for wisdom.  For clarity in what God may be teaching me.  For opportunities to grow and for a stronger desire in my heart to seek after Him.  

If any of you lacks wisdom, you should ask God, who gives generously to all without finding fault, and it will be given to you. (James 1:5)