MAX ON LIFE

21. My dad was a very impatient man. He could make life downright miserable for everyone around him. I think I'm becoming more and more like him, as I'm often impatient with others. I don't want to be like that. What can I do?

You've heard the saying "A watched pot never boils." Well, it does boil, whether you watch it or not. It just doesn't seem to boil fast enough if you're watching. The saying should go like this: "A watched pot makes you boiling mad while you wait for it to boil."

Impatience wants boiling water now! You curse the manufacturer of the pan, bang your fist against those oven bureaucrats, angrily defy the flame and attack the properties of water! But the only thing you can do is turn up the flame. More flame equals faster boil. Burn, baby, burn!

Patience is a slow boil. It doesn't turn up the flame. It waits for the burner to heat the pan, which heats the water to 212 degrees. This takes some time, and you accept that. You can't change the law of heat transference. So you sit back and allow it to happen.

Both situations want the same thing: boiling water. One is willing to wait. The other will use any means necessary to get it done now, including spontaneous combustion.

Impatience is selfishness with time. We don't like to waste it. People get in our way and slow things down, so we burn them with impatience!

The Greek word for patience means "taking a long time to boil." Patience recognizes that we share time with others - it's not just our time. Patience knows other factors are at work in this world and we need to adjust to their time schedules too. Some things can be sped up (with encouragement, not flames of retribution). Some things can't.

The best way to turn down the flame is with love.

"Love is patient" (1 Cor 13:4).

Love forgives laziness. Love understands people's weaknesses. Love wants the best for everyone. Love is a relationship, not a means to an end.

Love is a fruit hanging from the tree of Galatians 5:22. It's the first fruit and some say the most important. The seeds of love produce the harvest of all the other fruits: joy, peace, patience....

If you have the Holy Spirit, then you have the potential of making patience a part of your life. Thankfully, God is patient while you find that patience.

By: Max Lucado