Ask and you shall receive: Patience
I think this is one of the fruits of the Spirit that Christians struggle with the most. I may be wrong, but it seems to me many people say, “I don’t have enough patience for [fill in the blank].” I know it’s one with which I struggle daily.
If you’ve ever worked with kids, this might be something you’ve said often. Despite not being much of a kid person, I worked at a daycare for 2.5 summers in college, and I babysat for a while after graduating. God is funny like that.
And, I thought I was patient — until my most recent round of working in childcare, that is.
On the days my four-year-old friend and I struggled to get along, I prayed for patience and grace. However, I often struggle to realize when I pray for things like this that they don’t magically appear in our lives.
Fruits of the Spirit are just that — fruit! Just like apples don’t instantly appear on the tree the same day you plant it, spiritual fruits also take time to grow. We need situations that test our patience, allow it to grow and then eventually yield the fruit of our labor.
I remember a pastor once saying, “Don’t ask for wisdom. Only ask God for it if you really want it because it means you’ll have to go through situations that cultivate what you asked for.” I think this applies to any fruit of the Spirit or other Godly attribute.
Well, I prayed for patience, and boy, was that pastor right! There were harder days and more moments of stubbornness than I anticipated.
The family for whom I babysat was abroad for the summer, so my young friend and I had a little over two months away from each other. She and her parents worked on her manners, and God and I worked on my heart.
Despite all the difficult days it took to get here, I’m glad for them. I appreciate the days spent babysitting now more than I did before. Are there still times we butt heads? Of course, but that’s natural when you’re trying to teach a child how to behave, read, write and do things independently. That, however, doesn’t mean I have to be miserable, ungracious or impatient along the way.
Psalm 37:4-5 says, “Delight yourself in the Lord, and he will give you the desires of your heart. Commit your way to the Lord; trust in him, and he will act.”
When the desires of our heart match those of the Lord’s, he gives us those things — even if it is in ways we don’t expect. (After all, when I asked God for patience, I didn’t mean give me more four-year-old tantrums and obstinance on the way.) If it makes us more like Christ, let’s do the difficult thing and ask God to cultivate himself and his attributes in us.
Originally published at Stand Unshaken