Small Pieces of Patience

Proverbs 14:29 - A patient man has great understanding, but a quick-tempered man displays folly.

• You’re standing in line at the post office. You keep glancing at the clock on the wall as the minutes tick by.

 

• You’re at the grocery store. You finish shopping and get in line behind someone else. Then there’s a problem at the check stand. You glance at your watch as the minutes tick by.

 

• You’re waiting at the stop light. You just missed the signal so now you must wait until it turns green again. You glance at your car’s clock as the minutes tick by.

 

• You’re at the doctor’s office. You check in and take a seat. An emergency comes up so you wait. You glance at your phone as the minutes tick by.

 
Patience. It’s something that we sometimes lose. We want to relax and not be bothered by waiting, but we lose our patience anyway.
 
It feels sometimes that waiting is like painting a picture. You can be one of two people:
 

• One picks up the paint brush and slowly and meticulously applies each brush stroke. They’re not in a hurry. They want the picture to convey the peace they feel in their heart.

 

• The second picks up the pain brush and quickly applies each brush stroke. They’re in a hurry because they have an art showing in four weeks. That’s right. Four weeks. They only have one picture to paint, but they hurry through it even if they have time to finish it. And the result is a picture that reflects anything but peace.

 
Which type of person are you? Do you have a bucketful of the paint of patience, or do you have nothing but an empty bucketful of paint.
 
Each day there are small pieces of patience that want to end up on your day’s canvas. But we can’t seem to find any paint. All our pieces of patience never flow our way.
 
You see, those pieces of patience, the small moments of our day, all add up and can cause us to become frazzled, impatient people. That lack of patience while in line at the grocery story or waiting for a doctor’s appointment can cause our stomachs and whole body to be consumed with the burning fire of impatience. This isn’t a life with fullness. It’s a life lacking what it takes to go the long haul.
 
So how do we become more patient people? Mindtools.com posts the article, “How to be Patient,” which gives us signs of impatience, the cause and managing the symptoms, such as reminding ourselves that our impatience rarely gets others to move faster.
 
Something else to consider: Take a look at the Bible verse above. It says that a quick-tempered person displays folly and this is so true. When you’re in a hurry and out of patience, you can find words coming out of your mouth that you may regret later. It’s better to have a few pieces of patience because God blesses those who have patience with a greater understanding of what is going on in frustrating circumstances.

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