Patience is a choice?

Patience is a Choice

I said patience is something I am working on this year and plan to be better at before the year’s end, but what exactly do I see as the end to obtaining this fruit of the Spirit as mentioned in Galatians 5: 22-23 (But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, ²³ gentleness, and self-control. )? There are people I view as being patient…my step mother Sandra (after all she has put up with my dad for 40 years); Gloria Burness; Mimi (Stella Drake); Helen Morgan; Tommy Abbott; Ashley Hickman; and one of my newest friends Amy Ketchum. I look at these people and think one day I’ll be able to react to certain situations like they do…calm, cool and collected…not like Mt. Everest. 

What makes patience, waiting without complaint, so difficult and such a virtue? And why can’t we just decide, “OK, from now on, I’m going to be patient and that’s all there is to it”? Why does it seem to come so easily to some and completely fly by others? This virtue of patience is more difficult than it seems at first glance.

Ok, so patience is waiting without complaint. Now there are many times we wait without complaining such as waiting on a cake to bake or waiting to see a friend you haven’t seen in a while. But it is those times of waiting when we would normally complain, such as in the checkout line at Wal Mart or at a doctor’s appointment, yet we CHOOSE not to complain that we are exhibiting true patience. 

Can you imagine what Jesus would have sounded like complaining? “Simon, don’t make me tell you twice to take this boat out further, believe me I know what I’m talking about.” “Peter, how many times do I have to tell you to keep your eyes on me? I should let you drown, you moron!” (Why do you think Jesus changed Simon’s name to Peter which means Rock…probably because his head was hard as a rock!) Or what if he had complained about being a carpenter for most his life before he could accomplish what he was sent here for…”If I have to pound another nail, I think my head will explode”. 

My personal opinion is that he used these waiting times as praying times. I would like to think he was praying for me while he was pounding those nails, “Father, I lift Stacey up to you today. She is going to pray for patience one day because she is going to realize the value it will add to her life. Father, I pray you help her through the trials of patience you will put her through so she will see how strong you made her and what an over comer she is. I thank you in advance Father for the changes you will make in her life.” I also think he pictured me most often when Simon Peter was acting up, I’ve been pretty hard headed too. 

So what do I see as the end product of gaining the virtue of patience the ability to put myself in the shoes of those sharing in my “waiting” experience with me, to accept that the cashier may be new or she may have just lost a loved one and that is why her line is not moving too fast. To accept that the doctor is spending the time with the current patient he is with as I want him to spend with me. To know that all things work for the glory of God and his timing is not my timing. These are what I hope to accomplish.