Impatience

In your patience possess ye your souls. (Luke 21:19 KJV)

Can you think of a single time when impatience brought on action and it turned out well?  There are several biblical examples where a lack of patience brought action that turned out badly.

Look at Abraham and Sarah.  They were promised a child, but finally ran out of patience (Sarah even laughed at God as she aged and He spoke of the promise.)  Sarah thought giving Abraham her handmaiden would help God fulfill the promise.  There has been discord between descendants since.

A few of those descendants have had problems with patience, too. Moses became impatient with the nation, struck a rock in anger and earned a tomb on the wrong side of the Jordan.

His charges became impatient with Moses, and with God, as they spoke on the Mount.  Needing something to worship, they chose a golden calf.  Regrettable.  At least they regretted it.

But if we hope for that we see not, then do we with patience wait for it. (Romans 8:25 KJV)

It will be the people around us who are hurt by our impatience, and ourselves, but it is God’s plan that will be adjusted.  You see, He doesn’t really need us. “The universe is unfolding as it should” is a simple way of saying that God’s plan will be done, just as Mordecai told Esther:

For if thou altogether holdest thy peace at this time, then shall there enlargement and deliverance arise to the Jews from another place; but thou and thy father's house shall be destroyed: and who knoweth whether thou art come to the kingdom for such a time as this? (Esther 4:14 KJV)

Look up “patience” and check out the verses – which one speaks to you the most?  For me it is:

For ye have need of patience, that, after ye have done the will of God, ye might receive the promise. (Hebrews 10:36 KJV)

Why bring up this subject of patience, anyway?  It came to mind when reading of a teen, an avowed atheist, who required that another teen’s writing be removed after 49 years on a school wall.  What offended the atheist? The writing was another teen’s prayer.

Our Heavenly Father,
Grant us each day the desire to do our best, to grow mentally and morally as well as physically, to be kind and helpful to our classmates and teachers, to be honest with ourselves as well as with others.  Help us to be good sports and smile when we lose as well as when we win.  Teach us the value of true friendship.  Help us always to conduct ourselves so as to bring credit to Cranston High School West.
Amen

Unabashed by offending others, unwilling to accept the diversity of another teen’s beliefs, impatient as a ten-year-old when her prayers were not immediately answered, she requires the writing of another child to be destroyed.

When such happens, we need patience to allow God’s plan to unfold.