Patience is a Virtue

Meaning of Patient

1. Bearing or enduring pain, difficulty, provocation, or annoyance with calmness.

2. Marked by or exhibiting calm endurance of pain, difficulty, provocation, or annoyance.

3. Tolerant; understanding.

4. Persevering; constant.

4. Capable of calmly awaiting an outcome or result; not hasty or impulsive.

Waiting can be painful.  Right now several areas of my life have me waiting.  However, it's not like my life is in danger, or I'm lacking something vital.  At worst I'm greatly inconvenienced.  Mainly I'm annoyed.  So I've been thinking a lot about being patient.

I've decided that at the root of my problem with patience is a frustration of being out of control.  Fact of the matter is that often when we are forced to wait, it's because there is nothing we can do to effect the situation. 

Waiting confronts the depths of what you believe about a situation, circumstance or person...because you can't see immediate results.  Do I think think "x" is going to do/be "x"?  Faith plays an important role in that equation.

I'm finding that what you believe also affects your attitude.  As of today, I've been waiting to close on my house for 18 extra days.  The reasons have nothing to do with anything I didn't do or should have done.  Completely out of my control.  This waiting has caused extra stress in my life because several other deadlines have come and gone and I've had to jump through extra hoops.

I admit that I've been annoyed. 

However, at the core of my belief is that I know that buying a house is the next right thing for me.  I'm also pretty sure that this is the right house for me, but even if it isn't, I would look with anticipation for what God was going to do next. 

Life is much more peaceful when one is able to rest on the promise as opposed to the circumstances of a situation.  As a person who likes to be in control, this has been a good lesson, and I'm proud that I've reacted differently than I would of in the past.

And hopefully, I will only have to be patient a few more days.  At least concerning this situation.

Comments

[Jeremy]

This is such a good post. If I were a better blogger I'd write about it. Since I am not I will be forced to just tell you that we read (Lindsey and I both) and it's good stuff.