Love is Patient

I cringed in the passenger seat in the intersection of what felt like the center of a danger zone.  My 15-year-old son had recently gotten his permit to drive, so of course, I started allowing him to drive short distances.  Eventually, we worked our way up to more complicated routes that included left turns and high peek traffic hours.  In those moments, I wanted to yell “Go!”, “Stop!”, “Slow down!”, “Speed up!”,  but I knew that would only add to the already tense situation, so I sat in the passenger seat with my heart pounding and my foot mashed on the imaginary break on my side of the car while praying “Dear Lord, please get us home safely.”

I knew this situation would require me to be patient and also require me to endure some difficult circumstances without getting angry or annoyed, but I didn’t know if all the other cars around us would be patient.  As the cars around us sped by and honked their horns, I had to remind my son to wait until he felt safe to make the left turn.

Ephesians 4:2 says, "Be completely humble and gentle; be patient, bearing with one another in love."  Patience means to accept, tolerate or endure situations without getting angry or annoyed.  Patience is essentially telling the other person, “I’ll go at your pace” and as Ephesians 4:2 says “I’ll bear with you in love.”

Like me with my son, I can imagine our Heavenly Father cringing during those moments when I was in some of life’s intersections.  Would I safely make the turn?  Was I even ready to make the turn?  Was I going in the right direction?  Was I ready to handle the things He’d taught me?  Regardless of where I was spiritually, mentally, emotionally or even physically, He was patient with me.  Even during those times when I was not making the turn, the commitment, the right decision, not the necessary change that would put me in line with God’s will, He was still patient with me.  No matter how hopeless it looked for me, in love, He waited for me to heed His voice.  He never changed towards me, He simply allowed me to go at my pace and “bearing with me in love”, He waited until I was ready.

He knew that I would make some mistakes and make some wrong turns.  Yet He was patient, because He loves me.  Just as I patiently waited for my son to make the turn, so does God patiently wait for us to make the turn.  He loves us so much that He is patient as we grow, learn, and yes, eventually merge onto the path of His plan for our lives.

Love Always!

Shy