When I instruct classes on the Fruits of the Spirit, and I ask which fruit is the hardest to practice, the most votes are for patience.
Every time and across the board, meaning, it's not just the people with explosive personalities. In fact, the quickest to raise their hands are the quiet, sweet moms.
As I continue this summer series on the Fruits of the Spirit and each one's connection to the
fruit of love, I see patience as the antidote to two issues: expectations and anger.
Recently I expected a home repair project to take an hour. Four hours later, in my frustration, I made some impatient decisions that led to having to go back to square one. My expectations and, yes, my anger got the best of me.
Expectations are not always bad. Expectations drive commerce and innovation. Expectations build great churches. But expectations are built on the keyword of "should," and that word can cause problems. When we think things "should" go a certain way, or we feel people "should" behave a certain way, we can become impatient when our vision of "should" isn't fulfilled.
Unfulfilled expectations can lead to anger. In his listing of the Fruits of the Spirit (Galatians 5:22-23), Paul's fourth fruit can be interpreted as patience or forbearance. That's because the actual Greek word he uses is "makrothumia," which means "slow anger" or "long fuse." Paul views anger as a component of patience.
Think about the God we see in the Old Testament. God gets angry, but it's typically a slow anger or a long fuse that burns until God finally expresses anger. Applying forbearance doesn't mean we never get angry. Forbearance means that it takes a while for anger to appear as we work through other options first.
I like to joke, "Don't pray for patience, because God will give you opportunities to practice it!" In reality, we need to learn patience from the Holy Spirit, the One who cultivates patience in us. We learn patience by tapping into that quality of the Spirit, including the Spirit's patience with us.
As we learn, I believe we'll better manage our expectations and our anger. We'll tamp down the negative aspects of "should" and lengthen our anger fuse.
LOVE CONNECTION: Isn't it obvious that patience is intertwined with love? It's no mistake that when Paul lists the characteristics of love in 1 Corinthians 13, he starts with "Love is patient."
We're just weeks away from the official launch of "Unison Parenting: The Comprehensive Guide to Navigating Christian Parenthood with One Voice." Learn more about the book through my appearance on the Pursue Your Passion podcast, a quick twelve-minute listen.
Here's the link: https://scwguild.com/2024/07/02/pursue-your-passion-cecil-taylor-3/
Comments