“Patience is bitter, but its fruit is sweet.”
Jean-Jacques Rousseau
Recently the word “patience” has come up in most of my prayer time. I am an admittedly not patient person. I want to see a result. I want to see change. I want it now. But God has called us all, male and female, to live a life full of patience. The Bible says “Put on then, as God's chosen ones, holy and beloved, compassionate hearts, kindness, humility, meekness, and patience…” Colossians 3:12 (ESV).
Reading this I thought “ok, patience. I can develop that!” But I quickly learned that I am human and I am flawed. Patience will not just come to me exactly when I need it.
A couple of days ago I set out to make crock pot potato soup (thank you Pinterest). Potato soup is one of my favorite things and the thought of throwing some ingredients into a crock pot for six hours sounded appealing. Little did I know that those six hours would drive me crazy! I probably looked every thirty minutes to check and see if my soup looked or smelled any different than the last time I had checked.
Did my soup cook any faster? No. Did it taste any better? No. Did I waste time when I could have been doing other things? Yes.
What I’ve realized is that God calls us to be patient and do what we can while we are waiting on him.
I do not know where God has called me, but I wait patiently on him to show me and in the meantime I serve him in small ways.
In closing, the good wife in Proverbs 31 is seen making clothes, buying land, cooking, etc. While it may not explicitly say that this woman is patient we can draw our conclusions. If she’s making linens, cooking, taking care of her kids, waking up at the crack of dawn and still has the grace and beauty to be called more precious than rubies-she has to have patience.
Patience is one thing I lack. I am grateful daily that He is patient with me even when I can't be patient with Him.
ReplyDelete