Cultivating Patience

I am not a patient person. Don't believe me? Just ask my husband. Oh, I can be patient, but believe me it's not my nature. Like fine wine, I have mellowed with age in some areas, but those are mostly the areas where I am not tried so much as I once was. I used to pray for patience like it was a gift God would bestow on me if I were sincere and penitent enough. Pr. Phil burst that bubble for me in a church council meeting one day. He explained that patience wasn't just a thing we could be given, it had to be cultivated. So now I pray for the strength to cultivate patience. It's okay to pray for strength, right?

Pr. Phil's blog today is on Psalm 27. (www.livingthelectionary.blogspot.com) That Psalm could have been written for the impatient person like me, especially the last verse: "Wait for the Lord; be strong, and let your heart take courage; wait for the Lord!" I can't help but think about our two dogs, Fred (black lab) and Barney (brittany spaniel) when I read that verse. We haven't done much training with them, but one thing we taught them as puppies was to sit and stay. When we feed them, we make them sit and stay, sometimes walking out of their sight for a moment or two. When we return, there they are waiting for us. Of course, they know they're about to be fed, so they have good incentive to be patient. But the Psalmist had no such incentive; he was under attack.

Growing up, I thought my Dad must have been the most patient person on earth. And believe me, my brothers and I gave him ample opportunities to be impatient, but I never saw him lose control of his temper. Then, one day when my girls were little, I told him I regretted not inheriting his patience. Boy did he get a good laugh out of that! "Are you kidding me?" he said. He explained that he was one of the least patient people he knew. (I did know from personal experience that he wasn't patient behind the wheel of a car.) I asked him how he managed to keep his cool. He said he had to pray every day for strength (obviously I should have paid more attention here). He studied the Book of Job and he prayed he would have the humility and faith that Job had. I remembered his favorite term in admiration of tolerant people was they had "the patience of Job." Learning this about my Dad, whom I loved and respected so much, gave me hope. Hope that, while I carried his gene for impatience, I also carried his gene for stubbornly refusing to let that be what defined me. More importantly, I inherited my father's faith that made it possible.

I don't imagine my daughters harbor any misconceptions about my true nature, though I like to think they also appreciate all my finer, cultivated qualities. But I hope and pray that they also know the power they have been given by God to be defined by his grace, not by their human nature. To claim and be claimed by Christ, and to cultivate the gifts of the Spirit within them. To wait patiently on the Lord, with courage and strength, especially when they feel like they're under attack.