Michele Leppard

30 Days of Christmas Giving

They say patience is a virtue for a reason. Patience may be one of the hardest gifts to give, but when you have it… give it!

What is patience? It is the capacity to accept or tolerate delay, trouble, or suffering without getting angry or upset (Google Dictionary). Quite often, as humans we tend to react rather than wait, especially when we are angry or bothered. In fact most of the time, when we are angry we say things, we later regret. If you have patience and delay your impulse, you may turn a negative into a positive. Take for instance, sports…there is a reason they instill the 24 hour rule in sports because it gives you cool-down time (better known as forced patience). Many times this patience turns an angry parent into a thoughtful parent, who will be able to communicate much more effectively with the coach.

Another reason we should practice patience is because it makes us a better person. When we yell at our child because they spilled the milk, what does this do? It scares your child, discourages them to do things on their own and disrupts the household. What you could do instead, is be patient. Tell your child that accidents happen, count to 10 and clean up the mess, rather than allowing yourself to get angry and ruin your next hour. Think about this – cleaning up the mess, will probably only take you 2 minutes, so don’t get angry, be patient.

But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law. Galatians 5:22-23

Love is patient and kind; love does not envy or boast; it is not arrogant. 1 Corinthians 13:4