Sunday, August 17, 2008

Sunday Morning Sage - Peace or Patience?

Many years ago, I learned of a portion of scripture (in the Bible) from Galatians 5:22-23 called the fruit of the spirit. These virtues are strengthened as our relationship with God develops.

The nine virtues are love, joy, peace, patience (longsuffering), kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control.

Actually, they are what all of us should aspire to in our daily lives. I planned to write a Sunday morning series over the next nine weeks beginning with love.

This morning, due to frustration, I decided to begin with patience instead, especially when that virtue was in short supply today.

Years ago, I attended 12-week class at a local church. The teaching session would end in a time of prayer for whatever the topic was that evening.

One night, as two women were praying for me at the altar, one of the women started to pray for me to have patience during a time that could take years before I received the answer. The other woman suddenly said, "Stop! Do not pray for patience."

We both looked at her in astonishment.

"Why not?"

"Because, if you pray for patience, God will make sure she develops patience. It's like a muscle that needs exercised over time. She will go through whatever it takes in order to develop patience."

Well, that didn't sound very promising as an answer to prayer, so they decided to change the wording to "peace." They prayed I would have peace in the situation.

That sounded much better to me after the explanation I received about patience.

This morning I remembered that time of prayer as I was dealing with a very slow computer. Now I know I need peace, not patience, whenever I am going through any kind of trial.

Over the years, staying in a peaceful state of mind has helped in many situations.

As a caregiver to an elderly father who is deaf, almost totally blind, and shows increasing signs of Alzheimer's, peace is just what I need.

Although I think God is working on the patience part at the same time.

What is He working on in your life? As a caregiver, do you even feel like He is present in your situation?

No comments: