I read a verse in Proverbs about patience being better than power: Proverbs 16:32
Patience is better than power, and controlling one’s temper, than capturing a city.
I've thought a lot about that since. It seems that God is working His patience teaching into me. Just when I thought that His patience teaching could have taught me all I needed to learn in that area...
So, this verse has given me a bunch of encouragement - that the instilling of patience is worth IT.
Patience is better than power??? Power is very, well.... powerful. Patience is what? Does my patience have influence? What does it accomplish? It certainly helps me NOT to go crazy. It helps me to train my children without exasperating them. It helps me to hold my tongue sometimes. It helps me to avoid unjustly judging others. It helps me to stand back and let things unfold without whipping myself into a frenzy and trying to make life go MY way. It helps me NOT to get divorced. It stays me when my first impulse leans in a specific direction and WAIT until I know better. It helps me to be content when things are challenging. It helps me to slow down and realize the moment's blessings and be THANKFUL. And it helps me NOT to go crazy.
Those are my first thoughts about it. So, is patience better than power? At times it feels immensly empowering to be patient. Other times, honestly, I feel like a doormat, "Sure, walk over me, I can take it, I'm patient."
Maybe there is a depth to this type of patience development within my character that makes the surface floating power seem shallow and less valuable? Perhaps the VALUE of the patience in my being surpasses the VALUE of power in the moment? Perhaps power is fleeting, like a pleasure, and patience is a staying sustenance? Perhaps the power is only power in the world and patience endures through eternity?
I don't know, but I have a new and beautiful hope in the hard work of learning patience and the value of having learned it - more and more.
