Patience is NOT My Virtue!

I am not the poster child for patience. The famous educator John Dewey said that the most useful virtue in the world was patience. We need it all the time an we need it everywhere. Proverbs 16:32 says, "It is better to be patient than powerful. It is better to win control over yourself than over whole cities." I , like many of you, prayed for patience....once. I was going through a really hard time at home....and began to pray earnestly. "Lord, give me patience," I prayed. Everynight I prayed and prayed hard....for the all illusive patience. I expected immediate results...what I got was harder times....so I prayed again...."Lord, please....give me patience."....and things got even worse. It took me quite a while to realize that God was working patience through me....trial by fire....I discovered....it is easy to look patient when your seas are smooth...but when things don't go your way...the true colors come out....I truly did pray for patience...but I was putting time constraints on the Lords work. I wanted patience....and NOW! I, much like Lucy in the Peanuts cartoon, prayed for patience and then quit....because I was afraid I might actually get some. Noah waited 120 years for the rain...HE was patient. Abraham waited 100 years for a son....Moses, 40 years in the desert...and then another 40 years leading the Children of Israel across to the Promised Land. They waited in the Old Testament....for the Messiah to come....The Bible is a book about waiting...Why? Waiting demonstrates faith...and faith is pleasing to God. The hardest kind of waiting happens...when you are in a hurry....and God isn't. How long can you wait? God is never late....His timing is perfect. He may not move on our schedules...but He is always on time. Why should we be patient? Because God is....and we are to be like Him! Have a peacefully patient day!