Patience

   Just stand still. How many times as a parent have we told our kid just stand still and wait and see what happens? We tell them to wait for the fireworks, then they get impatient and start whining how much longer? Or we tell them to wait on something to start that they have been looking forward to. Most of us have experienced taking a trip with a child and the "are we there yet" questions. Just like a child we want to see the results without going through the rest of it that is required. That impatience is a childlike characteristic that most of us have never gave up. Most of us have never learned to wait. We get aggravated if our doctors appointment is late, or if the driver in front of us takes longer than we think they should. Should we tell our children to be patient when it is something that we ourselves haven't learned to do?
   Patience is something that comes from the Lord. It is a benefit of serving him. So many times I have been asked how can you have so many children there all the time? (For those of you who don't know I average between 8-14 on any given day) All I can tell them is through the Lord. By the Lord teaching me to deal with 2 and 3 children and then 6 and 8 children and then 12-14 children he has been preparing me to work in the youth center he has given us the vision for. In the beginning I had no idea why I had so many children coming around and then as the Lord opened my eyes to the vision of the youth center I began to understand. He did that to teach me patience with the youth.
   How much patience did our Lord have while here on this earth? Obviously at the age of 12 he was impatient to begin his work since we see him telling his mother that he was about his Fathers business. He knew what he was and who he was but he was still a youth. He had the eagerness and desire even then but he wasn't ready for the ministry to begin he still had to learn patience. Had he went to the cross before he had learned patience as a human could he have withstood the agony he went through? or would he have gotten impatient and said no I won't do this?
   Did God get impatient with the children of Israel? You bet he did. Many times he wanted to just destroy them. Another example is how he got impatient with the people before the flood. He did destroy them and only saved the righteous and then gave Noah a sign that he wouldn't lose his patience like that again. That bow was put there to remind God as well as us that he made a covenant with us and that he won't destroy the world with water again.
Patience is something that only comes by going through the trials. How can we become more Christ like if we never suffer any of the things he suffered? How can we ever hope to understand someone else's problems if we haven't been there? Many times I've been told don't pray for patience but if we never ask for patience how can we be a help to someone else? Patience is overcoming yourself to help others. Patience is taking time to hear someone else's needs before you hear your own. Jesus heard our needs and went to the cross just for us. He was patient in suffering so we could gain eternal life.
   I still have a ways to go. I still get impatient. I want things done in my time not God's. I may be patient with children but there are other areas God is still working on me. Many times he has told me to stand still and wait on him and I haven't, then I turn to him and say why did you let me do this? His answer? Because you didn't obey me, remember? I told you to wait. Don't limit God in what he can do and don't give him a time frame. Remember with God all things are possible to them that believe.
   Have a blessed day.