Patience, something that I find myself relying on day in and day out.
I’m either trying to show patience in a particular situation or I’m asking someone to have patience with me.
I think everyone reading this today can relate.
But what is patience?
One definition says, “the capacity to accept or tolerate delay, trouble or suffering without getting angry or upset”.
To put it in my own words, patience is the ability to withstand the troubles and trials we will face each day without losing our love for one another.

I have found in order to be successful in showing patience I have to realize the triggers that cause me to lose patience.
For many of us here in the Washington D.C. area, traffic is one of the main culprits for causing us to lose our patience.
I admit that was me for a long time, and I still lose my patience every now and then but I’ve gotten better because I focus on it.
I know it’s caused me to lose my patience in the past so when I encounter it, I look at it with a different perspective.
I step back and realize that losing my patience and love for those around me won’t make the traffic move any faster or disappear.
I realize that the majority of the people in traffic with me are not happy about it but we can all get through it by showing each other some patience and love.
It has truly allowed me to keep my patience when faced with the trial of D.C. traffic.

This is only one instance of an area where patience needs to be shown but it’s a very real one that many can relate to.
Other areas you may need to exercise patience is with your spouse, children, co-workers, students (if you are a teacher), congregation (if you are a pastor), etc.
You get the picture and you can see that picture includes just about everything you encounter in your daily life.

Life is too short for us to allow the things we encounter each day to steal our patience and love for others.
Each of us is called to display love through all situations and to make allowances for the faults each of us has.
Remember how our Creator overlooks the many faults we have and still loves us deeply in spite of them.

Truth In Love! ~ Chuck