Love is . . . Some thoughts on patience.

1 Corinthians 13:4 Love is patient, love is kind . . .God calls us to love one another. I think most of us know this. When I look at 1 Corinthians 13, the “love” chapter, I notice that being patient is mentioned before being kind. In the king james version it is called longsuffering.

Have you ever watched pee wee soccer? It is so cute to watch the kids. They all crowd around the ball. They will take the ball from their own teammate just for the chance to have the ball. They fight, they stumble over each other, they run towards the wrong goal. It is fun to watch. They all seem to want the ball. I think it is a human nature thing. We want our chance to shine and to make a difference. 

Here we are on earth and a major part of our purpose is to love each other. Patience is a BIG part of loving each other. 

The Strong's concordance entry for patience: G3114 to be long-spirited, (objectively) forbearing, (subjectively) patient.


The Dictionary.com entry for patience: adjective, bearing provocation, annoyance, misfortune, delay, hardship, pain,etc., with fortitude and calm and without complaint, anger, or the like.


So, I can’t really just get up and decide to be patient with someone or something. Being patient is a reaction. We can only do it until some provocation, annoyance, misfortune, delay, etc., comes our way. But when it does (when not if) we get the ball . . . . We get to be that pee-wee soccer star. If we deal with patience we get our opportunity to run toward the goal and score for our team. But, if we do not we might inadvertently be that kids running to make the goal for the other team.

So, off the top of my head. When I am changing my one-year-old baby’s diaper and he rolls over and runs away without a diaper and pees all over my bed, I have a choice. I could cry or get angry. Or, I could tell my other kids about it and we can all have a laugh at it.

If we look at our “annoyances, misfortunes, delays, hardships, pains” as an opportunity to be a star of patience and, therefore, love it can help us to deal with it with fortitude and calm and without complaint, anger, or the like. When bad things happen - we have the ball! Perspective can be pivotal.

And if it is choosing to forgive someone's annoyance or transgression and not say anything it might end up being a win between you and God. And there is something special about that (Matthew 6:4).

Think about it. Let’s change our perspectives. Let's be stars.