Written by Annie Warner Donnelly
Hello Everyone. The dark, icy days of winter will soon be upon us, but the words of Proverbs 15:13 can help us thrive through them: “A joyful heart makes a face cheerful; but a sad heart produces a broken spirit.” As someone who admires horses, I think of the methods some use to “break them in”; methods that can leave a horse with a broken spirit.
My grandfather Flanigan had a method that could be used for horses and for children. “Never break a child,” he would say. “Just rein them in.” His was a kind, patient strategy that produced better results than the alternative.
Recently, I was stopped beside a car as we waited for the green light. The sticker on the back of it said: “I am a new driver. Thank you for your patience.”
The Canadian Oxford Dictionary shares the standard Oxford definition for patience: “the capacity to accept or tolerate delay, problems, or suffering without becoming annoyed or anxious.”
What are some of the delays, problems, or sufferings that can hurt our hearts and dim our cheerful smiles? Frankly, this column doesn’t have enough space to list them!
Instead, let’s think of those who will benefit from the patience of our joyful hearts and our cheerful faces: new husbands and wives; new parents; new big brothers and big sisters; children attending school for the first time; new teenagers; first-time employees; first-time college/university students living away from home; becoming an in-law, a grandparent, a widow or a widower. These are just a few of the changes that can occur in our lives whether we’re ready/trained for them or not. And we know what they all require: patience!
Patience lives in a cluster of character traits that can lessen the negative impact of the challenges we face and the weather that comes with them. Let’s build our resilience with the FGGKPS Cluster – Faithfulness, Gentleness, Goodness, Kindness, Patience, Self-control – bundled tightly into Love!
Love, as a verb, describes the actions we take as faithful, gentle, kind, patient and self-controlled individuals. Let’s make these actions a habit. It’ll be good for us. Amen.