Just be Patient, Will Ya?

 "Therefore, as God's chosen people, holy and dearly loved, clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience...And over all these virtues, put on love, which binds them all together in perfect unity." Colossians 3: 12, 14

    I have no patience. You'd think I'd have learned by now that a watched pot never boils, even if you yell at it. I holler at traffic lights, tap my toes in long lines and give gifts as soon as I buy them. My reasoning is: I could get hit by a bus tomorrow, so why wait?

    The pandemic has gone out of its way to change me. For whatever reason, the cell phone store is closed so my daughter and I were attempting to purchase a new phone online. "Attempting." After an hour of hold times, voice machines and chat rooms, we gave up. These are difficult times, to be sure! I have no other options but to wait, wait, wait. Thankfully, the Holy Spirit also likes to give gifts promptly, the best one for me being patience.

    Here are some terrific verses on patience:

"A person's wisdom yields patience; it is to one's glory to overlook an offense." Proverbs 19:11

"...patience is better than pride. Do not be quickly provoked in your spirit, for anger resides in the lap of fools." Ecclesiastes 7: 8, 9

"Love is patient, love is kind." 1 Corinthians 13:4

    Did you know there are seven verses which tell us the Lord is compassionate and gracious, slow to anger and abounding in love? Think He's trying to tell us something? My mother's voice still rings in my memory, "Patience is a virtue." And my father, when he saw me losing my patience over something, would gently say, "Try to outsmart it!" The buzz word in this upside-down culture is "tolerance" but I think it should be "patience." If we all clothed ourselves in love, compassion, humility, kindness and gentleness and were patient with others, love would easily bind us all together, mending the fissures in our society. Imitate God.

"The Lord is not slow in keeping his promise, as some understand slowness. Instead, he is patient with you, not wanting anyone to perish, but everyone to come to repentance." 2 Peter 3:9