2012-07-20 - Patience

Part 1

I lost it a couple nights ago. I had a long week at work and took a half-day vacation to go to a local amusement park with my older son, Jordan. He and a friend were having a battle of the minds over who was more intellectually superior that was driving me crazy. The heat and the humidity got to me too. As we got home, he left the front door open and our dog escaped into the remote corners of the universe – or at least into our neighborhood. I yelled and threw my keys down at the floor in anger. I clearly lost my patience.

I am learning about patience still and hope to share much more with you on the subject in the coming weeks including hopefully ways that I have been able to become more patient. Pray for me as God continues to give me places to practice my patience. God is patient with me.

My patience problem has been there for a long time I’m sure but what really drove it home to me was hearing a simple little thought based on a verse in 1 Corinthians

Love is patient ... - 1 Corinthians 13:4

Go ahead and pause long enough to read verses one through eight. Paul tells us in those first few verses how important love is by saying without it everything we do is useless. Then in verse four he begins to define it. With a God-inspired definition that tells the many facets of love, Paul begins with this nugget:

LOVE IS PATIENT

This verse and those that follow define love with many words but at the top of that list is patience. That is the verse the statement referenced. The statement I heard that I almost wish I could un-hear because it pierces my heart so much was this: "You can only show love in as much as you show patience."

I love Jordan dearly but I am not very patient with him. I can blame it on a bad day at work but it's a patience problem. I love Justin a bunch but there’s times I’d like to pick him up and strangle him – like when he gets up at 3:13 in the morning after a long day and wants to argue with where he can sleep and so I wind up being up until 4:33. I can blame that on tiredness but it's really a patience problem. I love my wife but there’s times I roll my eyes at her thinking she’s gone nuts. I can blame that on something too but again it is always a patience problem.

I love many others too whether it's other family members, my church family, or the youth God has blessed me to work with but there’s times where I know I’m not patient. I bounce out of a conversation when they share some news or whatever… I can blame it on my ADOS. (That's Attention Deficit ... ooh shiny!) The truth is I have a good excuse for a lot of bad behavior and really the lack of patience is the root problem. So yeah I need patience.

I'm almost impatient about wanting patience but I know it only comes with time.

I'll share more thoughts on this subject next week.

Until then ...

Patiently IHFHBOH
Adam

acdum@hotmail.com
http://www.cfdevotionals.org

All scripture references from KJV unless otherwise noted.