12 Since God chose you to be the holy people he loves, you must clothe yourselves with tenderhearted mercy, kindness, humility, gentleness, and patience. 13 Make allowance for each other’s faults, and forgive anyone who offends you. Remember, the Lord forgave you, so you must forgive others. 14 Above all, clothe yourselves with love, which binds us all together in perfect harmony. 15 And let the peace that comes from Christ rule in your hearts. For as members of one body you are called to live in peace. And always be thankful. (Colossians 3:12-15 NLT)
You’re the sixth car in the left turn lane waiting for the turn arrow, the light changes, and the first car just sits there! For almost 4 milliseconds, the driver is staring off into space, before consciousness returns and they move! You know that because of their inattention, you’re going to have to sit through another cycle of the intersection’s traffic control routine! “…Clothe yourself with mercy, kindness…and Patience!”
That’s kind of a generic patience/impatience thing, along with supermarket check-out lanes with a customer’s full cart of groceries ahead of you in the “10 Items or Less” line, and checkers who have to send someone to check the price on three different items because….you get the picture. But there’s another kind of more specific “Patience With Others” that plays out with much higher stakes in our homes, our families, and our workplaces.
Always be humble and gentle. Be patient with each other, making allowance for each other’s faults because of your love. (Ephesians 4:2 NLT)
There’s the patience we’re learning to have with spouses and partners, with our parents and our kids, with our co-workers, employees, and employers. This is where we are patient with people we love because we love them. We make allowance for each others’ irritating faults because we love them. We also, after many years on the faith, hope, and love journey may begin to realize that we also have a few irritating faults of our own. We learn to discuss the impatience-triggering faults, theirs and ours, in a non-accusatory manner, learning to understand each other better. And we renew our commitment to live well with each other. Amazingly, we each become more aware of our own irritating patience-triggers so we each make the effort to do better! Because, Love is patient and kind…!
Prayer:
Father, Please fill us with mercy, kindness, and patience, that we may graciously make allowances for each other’s faults because of your love for us and our love for them!
