By Glenn Miller

GOD’S WORD: “The Lord is not slow in keeping His promise, as some understand slowness. He is patient with you, not wanting anyone to perish, but everyone to come to repentance.” – 2 Peter 3:9

Why is patience such a difficult trait for me to master? Perhaps it’s because I was raised in an automated world where everything is at one’s fingertips and immediate results are only a push button away. With microwaves, remote controls, cell phones, ATM machines, and the Internet, there’s hardly anything on this planet that isn’t attainable to us within a matter of just a few hours.

Somehow, we have transcribed that same efficient demand upon people. We expect others, and perhaps ourselves, to behave in that same manner: Do things right, do them right now, and do them to my specifications! As a matter of fact, all of my management training underlined the premise that leadership is all about expecting and encouraging others into a quicker, more efficient performance. Quicker is better because quicker saves time and time-saved equals more money. Slow, thoughtful, methodical thinkers are usually left behind on the sidelines in today’s corporate world. No corporate philosophy, it seems, has time for patience, perhaps due to a fear that your competitor is much more efficient than you. Individuals are no different.

But as I think more about my own ability to be patient, I feel that my struggle in this area has more to do with inter-personal relationships and my relationship with God more than it does with losing my temper in a traffic snarl or becoming flustered with a co-worker’s lack of urgency. I’ve come to realize after reflecting on patience, that I am not nearly as patient as I thought I was. Admittedly, I had previously associated patience with “meekness” and a “cool, calm demeanor.” As long as I didn’t project my anxiety and impatience, then I felt I was behaving patiently. But look inside me a little deeper.

Here it is where I find my true authentic self and come to know that it’s the bigger things in life that I struggle with being patient the most; things like waiting on God to show me what His will is for me in a particular situation or, most recently, being patient with myself when I fall into lapses of spiritual and emotional growth.

At the heart of being patient is one authentic premise, I believe. I can be patient with myself and with others because God is patient with me. Thanks be to God!