Fruit Diet: Patience

Patience is NOT something I'm great at.  Just ask my mother.  And now I have a three year old who is teaching me just what I look like, and the mirror is not kind.  Impatience is hurtful.  It's hurtful to the offended as well as the offender.  But, impatience makes me grumpy which leads to more impatience.  So, how can I fix it?  Well just like every other issue we struggle with, we look to Jesus.   We see how he lived out this life and we follow his example.

I hear people say all the time that patience is a virtue.  No, patience is a fruit of the spirit.  Meaning that we cannot just expect to be patient, but rather we must cultivate it through allowing the Holy Spirit to dwell in us.  How do we get the Holy Spirit to live in us?  The word.  Prayer.  Silent stillness before God. We invite him in.

So, what can Jesus teach us about patience?  He was the word made flesh, so maybe it was a little easier for him to connect with the Spirit than it is for us.  Or, maybe that's just because he was Jesus.  But, the truth is that it can be done.  It must be done if we expect to be women who show patience to our husbands, children, co-workers, and the random people we meet on the street.   

When I think of talking about patience there are many Bible stories that come to mind.  There's the obvious Job.  We have even made him into a  turn off phrase, "The patience of Job."  There's Abraham and Sarah.  There's Zachariah and Elizabeth.  There's Someone getting to meet Jesus at the temple.  So many accounts fill the pages of the word that show people being patient and waiting on God. 

However, right now in this stage of my life Jesus' patience with the disciples speaks volumes to me.  They remind me so much of children.  They all the same questions over and over.  They think they know better than Jesus.  Think about when they try to send the little children away and Jesus says let them come to me.  The disciples say they will do one thing and do the complete opposite.  How about Peter saying he'll die for Jesus then denies him instead?  The point is that over and over Jesus takes time with them to help them.  

Patience is a willingness to take the time needed for a situation without getting upset about it.  Patience is being willing to upset your plans without being upset.  Patience is having flexible expectations for yourself and others.  

As a mama I so deeply struggle with this.  I want my schedule to go the way I want it to go.  I want my daughter to do what I've told her to do, when I've told her to do it, the way I've told her to.  I keep a rigid set of expectations for she and I and when they go off track I get upset.  But, I am trying to work on it.  I am trying to seek God's heart on what expectations I should and shouldn't have for both of us.  I'm trying to leave my plans open for God to change them if He sees fit.  That's what Jesus did after all.  He didn't meet the people's expectations of what the Messiah should be.  The men he chose to walk with him weren't the religious leaders that would have been expected.  He didn't rule the way anyone expected.  

My prayer is that we can leave our expectations outside so that our hearts can patiently wait on God to do what He wants with us.  That means giving up the right to be mad when things don't go how we think they should.  That means loving God and others more than we do our plans.  So I'm praying that God's love rules my heart and not expectations.