Patience

                         

                              I have always heard it said that patience is a virtue.
     
          When I was younger I never understood patience or the process of taking time or waiting for something. I was always in search of that instant gratification. I wanted what I wanted and on my time.
     
         As I get older I have come to realize it is not always my plans or my personal timing that matters. These decisions that I make and the timing involved around them have consequences to others as well. Now before deciding whether to go out and by that brand new big screen right now on a credit card I have to think of who that will affect: my wife, my daughter, our personal finances, that trip we may have been planning, food we need... All of these things can be affected because I had to have it right now instead of saving for it or waiting for a better time to make the purchase.
     
        I use money and a TV just because it is a simple reference, but patience flows into so many parts of our life.
     
       It can affect your attitude, your work, and your relationship. Just think about the last time that you were in a fast food restaurant and were in a hurry. How did you treat the person serving you because you were in a hurry? I bet most of us would say that somehow we let the fact that we were in a hurry affect the way that we treated that person who was serving us. Again we are looking at a prime example of a lack of patience. The server probably did nothing wrong but they were not bending perfectly to our schedule so it affected how we treated them.

        I remember hearing from a very young age having my mom tell me I need to be patient. Normally it was in reference to something I said that I really needed and was essential to my existence, you know a new toy or ice cream, really important things. I also remember being at summer camp as a kids and singing about the "fruit of the spirit" and of course patience was part of that. However all the talk about patience never really made much sense. Even up until this last year or so I don't think I truly understood patience.
       
        Over the past year myself and my family have been through some trial: lost jobs, lower salaries, working two jobs, illness, hospitalization, new schools, almost losing a home, and on and on it goes. Now for a while I didn't know what I was going to do. After all I felt it was my responsibility to take care of all of these things after all I am the man of the house and this is my job right. However I began to realize I could not handle all this on my own. I was losing weight rapidly and losing my mind at an alarming rate. It was while all of this is going on that I started talking to God again and knew there was something to all of this patience talk.

        Patience is what it was all about. It was time for me to realize that it was not always about my circumstances and my time. It was time for me to turn everything back over to God, and learn to have patience that he will provide me the opportunities and everything we need to live and thrive, but I had to learn to give up attempting to do it all myself and rely on someone else and their timing.

     

Luke 8:15

New King James Version (NKJV)

¹⁵ But the ones that fell on the good ground are those who, having heard the word with a noble and good heart, keep it and bear fruit with patience.