For quite a few years I've been ruminating on the passage in I Corinthians about love. I've memorized it, pondered it, prayed about it, and evaluated myself by its standard. "Love is kind," would seem like a perfect place to start, but no! It starts with "Love is patient."
I've always been impatient: impatient with others, impatient with God, impatient with myself, and impatient with inanimate objects. We all know the signs of impatience: frustration, anger, irritability. We excuse impatience. I thought for years that my impatience was actually efficiency; I tried to do everything as quickly as I could, and I was immediately impatient with anyone or anything that slowed down my "efficiency." But I wasn't efficient; I was impatient. I was unloving.
I won't belabor the point, because we all know what it looks like. We're just not comfortable with calling it "unloving," or more accurately: hateful. To be impatient with a child is to hate the child. To be impatient with our aging and slow bodies is to hate ourselves. To be impatient with how (or when) God does something is to hate God. It's no wonder that chronically impatient people are so miserable! They are full of hate and don't know it.
Life has squelched some of my impatience as I've had to slow down, and this simple phrase from Scripture has convicted me. Oh, how I wish I had changed this part of myself when I was a young mother! Impatience with small children is perhaps the saddest, most damaging version of this sin.
I recognize impatience in myself now, and I think (hope?) I'm better at stopping myself, correcting myself, and asking God to help me show love instead.
Have you thought about this topic? I'd love to know your thoughts too.
