Patience is a Virtue
by Brandy Webb
I know that phrase does not come from the Bible, but since patience is a Fruit of the Spirit, the statement is true. Patience is a virtue.
It is a fruit that God is still trying to help ripen in me. I seem to have to wait a lot for answers to prayers. Waiting quietly and serenely is being patient. Waiting only because you have to, with constant fretting, worry, and anxiety, isn’t patience. I’m more the second type, my husband on the other hand is the first. I learn a lot from him about how to wait patiently.
The thing is, I believe that I have lacked patience from birth, but I know that isn’t an excuse for me not to try to grow in patience now. It is just hard. We live in a fast-paced world. We have instant entertainment at our fingertips. Hardly anyone has to wait for someone to get home to hear their message to call him or her back because majority of people have cell phones. In fact, now people get frustrated when they can’t contact someone. Patience is not growing but disappearing. Therefore, when trials hit us, we may not all react in our best Christian way. I’ll be honest, I have to have a real good cry to get myself on track.
This week has been a test in patience for me, not a life and death test of patience, which I have gone through, but a life trial of one frustrating thing happening after another hitting you all in a short span of time. First some back-story, my family and I have waited nearly nine years to get a house on our land. The original plan was for us to build a house, but after many setbacks trying to accomplish our goal, we finally just had to change our plan. After a lot of research and prayer, we decided that the best route available to us was to purchase a Solitaire home.
We were able to purchase a beautiful home. Now, all we needed to do was to get the site ready for our house. Well, one thing after another happened, and the site was not ready for the house that was delivered Wednesday and is currently sitting in my driveway. My husband and neighbor worked hard this week to get the site completed yesterday. Then, this morning we got a call from the gentleman who is supposed to move the house on the pad, that the equipment that they use to place the house on the pad is broken. So, now everyone is trying to come up with a creative way of moving the house onto the pad, hopefully, today because there is more chances of rain for the next few days.
Needless to say, I have had many ups and downs this week. It has been one thing after another that tested my patience. Through all of this I am grateful that my husband is a patient man because that helped me stay relatively calm. I am also grateful for prayer because it helps to talk it out with our God, and I am grateful for a random scripture that I had wrote on an index card that I just happened to find during all of this. I would like to share it because this is what we need to think about when patience starts to thin and anxiety starts to grow.
Consider it wholly joyful, my brethren, whenever you are enveloped in or encounter trials of any sort or fall into various temptations. Be assured and understand that the trial and proving of your faith bring out endurance and steadfastness and patience. (James 1:2-3 Amplified Version)