Where’s My Patience
Why is being patient so incredibly hard? We want others to be patient toward us when we mess up or are struggling, but to ask us to have patience for others...no way! This seems to be a universal problem too. Sure, there are some people that have more patience than others but put them in the right situation and their patience tank goes to zero. It’s such a normal thing, to lack patience, that it almost doesn’t even feel like a sin anymore.
If you happen to have children, you know how hard it is to be patient with them! You tell your kids something 15 times and it still doesn’t get done or understood. You’re in a hurry to leave the house, but they’re just starting to look for their socks and shoes. In those times, it’s so hard to have patience with them and to be able to talk to them with some self-control without going into a fit of anger! Not only with our kids but also with those other parents in the drop-off line at school. They never move fast enough, and are the worst drivers! Don’t forget the people at Sam’s Club who like to park their cart in the middle of the aisle and make it so you can’t get around...I have no patience for them! I know those examples are a little funny, but we all have those moments in life where we lose all self-control and have no patience to give.
I don’t think it was an accident that Paul listed patience as a fruit of the spirit! “22 But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, 23 gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law. 24 And those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires.” - Galatians 5:22-24
If you do a quick internet search, the amount of quotes that come up about patience is astonishing! Every religion and every religious leader ever has had something to say about being patient. From Gandhi to Buddha, from Saint Augustine to William Penn; there seems to be this need to be reminded to have patience. One of the anonymous quotes that caught my eye. “Patience is when you’re supposed to get mad, but you choose to understand.”
Every single day we have the choice of whether or not we are going to be patient with one another. Whether we are going to lose control and become angry! Whether we are going to put our temporal “needs” over how we treat each other! Paul earlier in chapter 5 writes “13 For you were called to freedom, brothers. Only do not use your freedom as an opportunity for the flesh, but through love serve one another. 14 For the whole law is fulfilled in one word: “You shall love your neighbor as yourself.” 15 But if you bite and devour one another, watch out that you are not consumed by one another.” Galatians 5:13-15
Our lack of patience says that we don't love our neighbors as ourselves. It says that we don’t care, that we are above them! But thanks be to God that our Father in Heaven doesn’t treat us like that! We have a God who is patient when we fail Him, and boy we fail Him! May we all choose to be patient with one another today, and strive to be “in step with the Spirit.”
“25 If we live by the Spirit, let us also keep in step with the Spirit.” - Galatians 5:25
Love you and mean it!
