working on patience

So one of the things I've been pondering lately is how patient God is with me. I mess up, time and again, often on the same types of things, yet He still wants me to come to Him and He still gives me multiple times to get it right. I picture Him cheering me on saying, "You can do this!" "Let me help you do this!"

He has incredible patience with me, and I want to learn to give that same type of patience to those around me.

I had an interesting realization though about patience - and I probably have a lot more interesting realizations to come. Patience doesn't mean that you don't get upset or angry or bottleneck your emotions. As I was sitting here looking at Bible verses on patience, the Scripture popped into my head about Jesus going through the temple and throwing out the money changers because they were taking advantage of people who were trying to please God and prepare for Passover. Patience doesn't always call for a lack of response. Sometimes patience demands a response.

One description the Greek word for patience provides is: "In the NT the characteristic of a man who is not swerved from his deliberate purpose and his loyalty to faith and piety by even the greatest trials and sufferings."

So perhaps I need to rethink my definition of patience. Patience isn't necessarily staying calm no matter what,  although it might be in some circumstances. Patience is remaining true to what you believe and acting on those beliefs no matter what comes your way. Jesus adhered to what He believed when He threw over the money changers' tables, when He let Judas betray Him, when He was exasperated with the disciples lack of faith, when He taught the multitudes... the list could go on.

Patience isn't just a demeanor or a persona that we put on. It's staying constant to you and your faith in the middle of difficulty. It's remaining steadfast and persevering through what comes your way.

Speaking of patience, I just finished enduring one particular trying season of my life: low activity so baby could come safely into this world. Baby's not here yet, but the 38 week mark is, which has been one of our goals!

Yay, yay, yay for this part of the waiting and endurance to be done! On to the next stage of waiting... seeing when little Mister or Miss will decide to come!