PATIENCE IS LIKE A DIAMOND

PATIENCE IS LIKE A DIAMOND

This incident happened in the summer of 2016 but is still very pertinent today. Jane and I discovered that by faith and quoting scripture, one of the fruits of the Spirit mentioned in Galatians 5:22 had fully developed, and we didn’t even know it.

 

At four o’clock in the morning, I woke up in a sweat. I checked the thermostat, and it was over 80 degrees! The temperatures had risen from 110 to 113 for days, so we had to get this fixed as soon as possible. I needed to be at work, and Jane had an appointment at 1:00 p.m. We had to think about the cat and the dog, call the insurance people who would call the air conditioning company, and we also needed to figure out a place to stay until somebody could fix it. We had lots of arranging to do and were chock full of pressure.

 

We actually handled it well, one thing at a time. Jane took me to work, called the insurance, went back to check on the animals, called me, and was able to make her 1 o’clock appointment. Unfortunately, the air conditioning guys were so booked up that they couldn’t make it to our house until three days later. So the next two days were a whirlwind of driving me to work, driving back to check on the animals, getting our stuff to the motel and checked in, going back again to check on the animals, and getting a ride after work to the motel. And in the middle of this, we had a quick rainstorm and a flash flood.

 

But with all the tension and stress of the situation, we didn’t even argue one time. When the anxiety mounted, we shut up and didn’t let it out of our mouths. We just trusted the Lord that all would be well, the air conditioning would be an easy fix, the animals would be fine, and everything would be okay. And it was.

 

Galatians 5:22 tells us: “The fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith.” We ate some of that “longsuffering” fruit. The Greek word for “longsuffering” means “patient enduring.”

 

Vine’s Expository Dictionary of New Testament Words says: “Patience only grows in a trial.” In other words, patience is only developed under pressure, so we don’t even know we have it until we’re put to the test.

 

We often don’t see what the Spirit is doing to change our lives, and we may even wonder if anything is really happening. I know that since the beginning of that year, Jane and I had several opportunities to be stressed. We were both very aware of the reason: I started working on publishing my second WINGS book. The adversary hit me with just about everything he could to get me to quit. But with Jane’s help and the help of friends like you, I didn’t give up.

 

Every day on the way to work, I would say Philippians 4:6 and 7, along with the other scriptures we quote. It says: “Be careful [anxious] for nothing; but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known unto God. And the peace of God, which passeth all understanding, shall keep your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus.”

 

Then when this incident with the air conditioning happened, and we were put under even more pressure, we just kept the faith and trusted in the Lord all the way through. We even got a mini-miracle: The air conditioning guys were scheduled to come late in the afternoon, but they had a cancellation so that they could come in the morning.

 

When the whole incident was over, we discovered that in this experience, the fruit of patience had become fully ripe. I can honestly say it’s as if the entire thing never happened.

 

We talked this morning about what could have happened if we had let the stress get to us: we could have argued about things, which would have brought about emotional strife, which would have remained and would have needed to be handled after the incident of the air conditioning was long over.

 

So many other negative things could have happened and lingered beyond the actual incident, but because the fruit of patience (longsuffering) was already developed, when the event was over, the stress just fell off like a scab and had no more effect on us at all – like it never even happened.

 

It’s not great, humanly, that patience (longsuffering) only gets developed under pressure. It’s just NOT fun, but once you’ve been through it, it’s amazing, thrilling, and a great joy to know you have it.

 

Like Jane reminded me this morning, a diamond is formed only under pressure. And we’ve found that true forbearance (patience) is a very precious diamond to own.

 

Love, Carolyn

 

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