Patience - The Ability to See Past Emotion

2 Always be humble, gentle, and patient, accepting each other in love. Ephesians 4:2

"When you are tempted to lose your patience with something or someone, think about how patience God is with you all the time" Anonymous

Patience. Endurance, staying power, persistence, perseverance, tolerance, forebearance, fortitude, serentity, etc.

Is patience as hard for you to maintain as it is for me at times?  Wanting something to happen yesterday?  Wanting to give in when things get a little difficult? Wanting things to happen that We want to happen when we want them to happen?  I can truly admit that I fall in this trap at times. What's the problem with "impatience"?  We develop expectations of situations and/or people that are impossible to meet, resulting in frustration.  We give up on a plan before it has a chance to bear fruit and start reaping the rewards that God wants us to receive. We get angry and do things we regret, falling way short of attempting to show God's example of love/patience to others.  We lose our serenity and peace when we get angry over what others are doing or not doing.

Lots of things in life need to age to be of the best quality:

Cheese: This is true for semi-hard and hard cheeses like cheddar and Parmigiana-Reggiano, along with soft-ripened cheeses such as blue cheeses, Brie, and limburger. Without proper aging, these delectable cheeses would lack their distinctive flavor and characteristic texture.

Friendships: They deepen with age as you further recognize and value the joy of companionship.

Fruit trees: Older trees produce higher quality fruit -- as long as they are pruned and properly cared for.

Cooking skills: Only an experienced cook knows how to shave time off the preparation of a meal and, equally important, confidently bring a somewhat botched meal to the table and successfully convince the dinner guests that it turned out exactly as planned. :-)

And the list goes on........

Father God - Thank you so much for situations that help our patience grow. We may not be aware of it in the middle of things, but You are wanting us to grow and reap the rewards of developing patience. Help us to persevere and "stay in the game' rather than giving up when things get difficult. Thank You for the patience and love you show us, Your children. Amen.