Sunday, February 10, 2013

Have patience

The Lord is teaching me a bit about patience this past week. It is one of the fruits of the spirit that I am not so great at displaying sometimes. I am teaching my children constantly what the Lord is teaching me. Tonight Abigail got really upset. I told her she just needed to be patient and wait for Andrew to get out of the restroom. I did start to sing the little song: "Have patience, have patience. Don't be in such a hurry. When you get impatient...you only start to worry" She did not appreciate it and was moaning and groaning and said, "I don't like being patient.....it takes waaaay too long!!" I found myself laughing! This is how I find myself reacting sometimes...sometimes I too think things do take waaaay toooo long. In my study this week a few things I have learned is the first and primary ingredient of patience is endurance or long suffering. Endurance is the ability to withstand hardship or adversity. Now, waiting just a few moments to use the restroom after her brother is really not my idea of hardship but to my three year old drama queen it was just too much to imagine. If you would ask her she would definitely tell you she was in the midst of long suffering. Learning patience is hard. Learning to wait on the Lord is hard. My favorite and most challenging quote from the bible study I wrote down this week was this: "Patience is accepting a difficult situation without giving God a deadline to remove it." Wow, now that is surrender. Laying it down at His feet and having patience even if it feels like the results we want are taking waaaay toooo long. "Count it all joy when you fall into various trials, knowing that the testing of your faith produces patience. But let patience have its perfect work, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking nothing." James 1:3-4. I guess I too sure could use some more patience because the Lord is pruning and maturing this fruit in me.

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