Does patience have a beginning? Does it have an end? What exist at the end of our patience road? When we exercise patience, are we being protected from anything or we are just hurting ourselves? Who is the beneficiary when I exercise patience? How does it help me?
In my quest to find answers on this ever important issue and virtue of patience, these are some of my findings:
Where should patience start?
Patience begins the moment or instant you recognize the need to exercise it. That time when you become anxious and overwhelmed. It should begin at that point you feel most uncomfortable because it is just not happening for you.
James 5 v 7 says, “Be patient, then, brothers, until the Lord's coming. See how the farmer waits for the land to yield its valuable crop and how patient he is for the autumn and spring rains.”If you have an interest in something, or you have invested your time, your money and energy, then you will want to wait out the process to see the results of your labor. I recall writing these words as a blog in the month of March, “Most of the weights we carry around in life are due to an unwillingness to wait.”
I have found this to be so true even in my own life. Patience must begin with each new day. Forget the ills and forbearance of yesterday. Every day is a day for a fresh start. I cannot overemphasize the importance of ridding ourselves of yesterdays unwanted, that is a blog all by itself.
Who does patience benefit?
As I look at it, the giver of patience will reap the greatest rewards of giving it.
Why do I say that?
Well, let us look at closely. First of all this was what the wise man Solomon had to say in proverbs 19 v 11, “A man's wisdom gives him patience; it is to his glory to overlook an offense.”
Does it hurt to exercise patience? Until we reach the point of a change of attitude or a change towards the situations around us; then what appears to be ‘the pains of patience’ will continue to exist. In order for patience not to be painstaking, there must be a change of heart to whatever is bothering you. It is so amazing that as a result of our willingness to wait we become less pressured, less stressed and less frustrated with everything around us. Patience is hard work, but it leaves us feeling free and calm.
I have to deal with impatient people every single day as I drive on the Jamaican roads. I only wish it was as easy to inject into others this all important ingredient to life as it is easy to talk about it. I would have been able to heal many homes and families, employees and managers, friendships and all.
I want to close by talking a little about principle no. 2. In part one of this blog in February I expounded on principle no. 1 which says:
Whatever you need you are going to find it difficult to give
This explains why some of the persons you meet who really need patience are the very same persons who find it very difficult to give it. They need it so they can’t give it.
In principle no. 2
You receiving what you need and so desperately desire is tied up in you giving the very same thing you need.
Quite a profound principle; if you want love, start loving others and you will be surprised just how much love comes back to you. The same is true for friendships, patience and so on. Start being friendly to others and you will win more friends than you could ever imagine. The minute you start to exercise patience you will become more and more patient. After all, it is a fruit of the Spirit.
In part 3 of this topic I want to close off by talking a little about what are we being protected from when we exercise patience. It will answer questions such as why did God instruct us to have patience and also expect us to do so in all our relations, even when dealing with him, the Divine?
Then finally I will expound on what exist at the end of the road call patience. What will you and I meet up there? When your patience has run out what happens next?
In my quest to find answers on this ever important issue and virtue of patience, these are some of my findings:
Where should patience start?
Patience begins the moment or instant you recognize the need to exercise it. That time when you become anxious and overwhelmed. It should begin at that point you feel most uncomfortable because it is just not happening for you.
James 5 v 7 says, “Be patient, then, brothers, until the Lord's coming. See how the farmer waits for the land to yield its valuable crop and how patient he is for the autumn and spring rains.”If you have an interest in something, or you have invested your time, your money and energy, then you will want to wait out the process to see the results of your labor. I recall writing these words as a blog in the month of March, “Most of the weights we carry around in life are due to an unwillingness to wait.”
I have found this to be so true even in my own life. Patience must begin with each new day. Forget the ills and forbearance of yesterday. Every day is a day for a fresh start. I cannot overemphasize the importance of ridding ourselves of yesterdays unwanted, that is a blog all by itself.
Who does patience benefit?
As I look at it, the giver of patience will reap the greatest rewards of giving it.
Why do I say that?
Well, let us look at closely. First of all this was what the wise man Solomon had to say in proverbs 19 v 11, “A man's wisdom gives him patience; it is to his glory to overlook an offense.”
Does it hurt to exercise patience? Until we reach the point of a change of attitude or a change towards the situations around us; then what appears to be ‘the pains of patience’ will continue to exist. In order for patience not to be painstaking, there must be a change of heart to whatever is bothering you. It is so amazing that as a result of our willingness to wait we become less pressured, less stressed and less frustrated with everything around us. Patience is hard work, but it leaves us feeling free and calm.
I have to deal with impatient people every single day as I drive on the Jamaican roads. I only wish it was as easy to inject into others this all important ingredient to life as it is easy to talk about it. I would have been able to heal many homes and families, employees and managers, friendships and all.
I want to close by talking a little about principle no. 2. In part one of this blog in February I expounded on principle no. 1 which says:
Whatever you need you are going to find it difficult to give
This explains why some of the persons you meet who really need patience are the very same persons who find it very difficult to give it. They need it so they can’t give it.
In principle no. 2
You receiving what you need and so desperately desire is tied up in you giving the very same thing you need.
Quite a profound principle; if you want love, start loving others and you will be surprised just how much love comes back to you. The same is true for friendships, patience and so on. Start being friendly to others and you will win more friends than you could ever imagine. The minute you start to exercise patience you will become more and more patient. After all, it is a fruit of the Spirit.
In part 3 of this topic I want to close off by talking a little about what are we being protected from when we exercise patience. It will answer questions such as why did God instruct us to have patience and also expect us to do so in all our relations, even when dealing with him, the Divine?
Then finally I will expound on what exist at the end of the road call patience. What will you and I meet up there? When your patience has run out what happens next?