Some days, I can be very impatient, often with myself. The other day, I decided to look up patience in Scripture, and of course, there were pearls of wisdom. Paul often wrote that we are to respond with patience no matter what we might experience. He tells us we should live a life worthy of our calling with patience as we deal with each other. Perhaps that applies to the way we deal with ourselves, I thought. Makes sense. Paul tells Timothy that the Lord displayed the utmost patience in making him an apostle! Oh, my, doesn’t that sound like us at times? James writes that we should be patient as we wait for the coming of the Lord. Peter says that the Lord’s patience is our salvation. Most importantly, patience is found in Galatians as a fruit of the Spirit.

There will always be things in life that try our patience. But the takeaway for me is this: if God puts something in front of me, he’ll give me the means to pursue it to the end. Does that mean we’ll always be patient from here on out? Not a chance. But maybe we might think of the words of Paul, Peter, or James, and maybe we might remember who we are. We are children of God, made in His image, in possession of His Holy Spirit, filled with the fruit of that Spirit, especially patience.