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Climb the mountain not to plant your flag, but to embrace the challenge, enjoy the air and behold the view. Climb it so you can see the world, not so the world can see you. ~ David McCullough, Jr.
Watch the Cookies Bake
But the fruit of the Spirit is... patience. — Galatians 5:22
Patience is my least favorite word in the English language. If you were to ask anyone in my family or someone who works with me, most likely they would acknowledge that while I have gifts and have worked hard to develop the fruit of the Spirit, patience is the one thing that still feels like it’s in embryonic form. I feel sure somewhere in my spirit this seed is just waiting to sprout, but I know from the times when my patience has been tested that it has yet to come into full bloom.
It’s not because I haven’t fertilized it and watered it faithfully, because I have. For years. With the Word and in everyday situations I face. When I’m stuck in traffic. When I’m waiting because my flight has been delayed — again. When I’m waiting in the car in the driveway for the girls to come get in. We’ve all been there, right? Still, it remains a struggle. Even when I do something as basic as baking cookies, my lack of patience can get the best of me — and the cookies.
To this day, when my girls smell cookies baking, they come rushing to the kitchen because they know I’m going to do one of two things. I’m either going to pull them out too soon because I’ve got things to do and I can’t stand waiting one more minute on them, or I’m going to wander off and start doing something else I need to do and completely forget about them. So I specialize in either cookies that are the equivalent of warm dough or ones that are more than well done, perhaps with some burned edges as a bonus. Suffice it to say, it’s best that I leave the cookie-baking to Catherine and Sophia. I have good intentions but not enough patience.
What about you? What are the things that try your patience? What stretches you to grow more of this fruit of the Spirit in your life? I’ll admit that my first thought every time my patience is tried is not to grow and develop more fruit, but overall I have grown significantly through the years of my life. And I have used many a trying moment as an opportunity to change.
- I’m so grateful that God is patient, and He is patient with me as I keep working on this.
He’s patient with you too. As you move through your day and things start to try your patience, recognize it as an opportunity to develop more of the fruit God wants to grow in you. Recognize it as another way you build endurance so you can keep moving forward full of vitality and strength, fulfilling all that God’s called you to do. Even if it’s something as simple as watching the cookies bake until they are just right.
Heavenly Father, please help me in the everyday moments when my patience is tried. Help me recognize the opportunity before me to develop more of this fruit of the Spirit. In Jesus’ name, amen.
Excerpted with permission from You’re Not Finished by Christine Caine, copyright Caso Writing, LLC.
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Your Turn
Are you patient? Better question - would the people in your life describe you as patient? Even if the answer is “not at all”, God wants to grow you in patience, to teach you to wait on Him, and for you to enjoy life in the waiting! Come share your thoughts with us. We want to hear from you on becoming patient! ~ Devotionals Daily
RESOURCES
Watch Christine's message "Are You Waiting on God"?
