Therefore, as God’s chosen people, holy and dearly loved, clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience. (Colossians 3:12)
“Why is he taking so long
to get this idea?”
“I’ve explained things to
her five times already!”
Yes, the last item of “everyday
clothing” we are advised to don is patience. We tend to think of patience as
waiting, but it’s not just waiting. It’s waiting for. We don’t seem to mind
sitting around doing nothing if we have a fishing pole nearby, or we’re
watching TV. But the moment that block of time is between now and something we
want - watch out!
Part of
the problem is the question of how long we wait if we’re being patient, and how
long after we start being patient are we supposed to get pushy or walk away?
It’s a silly example, but how long are you going to wait for your child to
clean his/her room? When you stop waiting, what do you do? Yell? Clean it for him/her? Start charging
rent? Kick him/her out of the house? We can’t just wait forever.
But
waiting forever isn’t what patience is about. It might better be described as
targeted waiting. When you’re trying to train an animal to come, it’s not
suggested that you say, “Come,” and then do nothing until the animal happens to
sit in front of you. Instead, you may reward the dog when you say “Come” and it
moves in your direction. Over time, you get more specific, until the dog gets
rewarded only when it sits in front of you. There is a consistent, persistent direction
that you move when possible, rewarding progress when and how appropriate.
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