patience
Perhaps this is a season when you join the Psalmist in crying out, “How long, O Lord?” (Psalm 13:1) Will summer break last forever? How long until the kids go back to school?
Every family’s situation is different. Some parents relish having our kids home with us for a few special months. Others must figure out how to balance the reality of work with childcare, so we sign our kids up for as many camps as we can afford. Sometimes we plan vacations to visit family and friends, chill at the beach, splash at the waterpark, camp in the mountains, or explore a new city.
Each parent approaches summer with our own perspective. Some of us appreciate the more laid-back routine. We enjoy planning activities to keep our kids busy, or intentionally let our kids experience boredom, sending them outdoors to find their own adventures. Or maybe we relax our screen time rules during the long, hot days.
Wherever you find yourself, summertime can be a unique test of patience for parents and kids alike. Let’s be honest, it’s often difficult to be patient with our kids—and with ourselves—especially in the middle of a heatwave. Patience doesn’t come to us naturally. Like all good things, it is a gift from God.
Patience is one of the fruits of the Spirit included in Paul's inventory (Galatians 5:22-23). “Patient” is also the first adjective he uses to describe love (1 Corinthians 13:4). God is infinitely patient. The Psalmist describes God as “compassionate and merciful, very patient, and full of faithful love” ( Psalm 103:8).
God’s grace empowers our ability to respond with patience in any given moment. You see, patience is not usually something we can simply muster up inside ourselves and rise to meet the occasion. Although, like most things, we do get better the more we practice. And certain things help, like praying the Lord’s Prayer, getting enough sleep, and remembering to feed ourselves lunch.
Odds are good, however, that we are going to lose our patience at some point this summer. I’ve noticed that I am especially quick to lose patience after I feel like I fail, compounding the problem. Yet God is always at work in our lives. There is more going on than meets the eye. While we wait for God, we can trust that he is always WITH us and FOR us and actively REDEEMING us.
I am thankful for the way StoryMakers underlines this biblical truth for me and my kids. Over and over again throughout the stories of scripture, whenever people inevitably blow it, God remains steadfast. He is faithful to his promises. God is remarkably patient with us, working out his redemptive purposes in all the best ways (2 Peter 3:9). Not only that, God knows that we humans are impatient, and he is compassionate toward us when we wait for him for what seems like a long time.
When we blow it, God is always there, taking the moments when we have failed and redeeming them in our lives—and in the lives of our kids. God offers us the gift of forgiveness so that we are free to say “I’m sorry” whenever we need to. And receiving forgiveness opens our hearts to notice how God works in radically ordinary ways to redeem the world. It’s never too late to say sorry. There is always hope.
So “be strong, and let your heart take courage, all you who wait for the Lord” (Psalm 31:24). God knows we live in anxious times and we are tired of waiting for what feels like too long. Remember that God is working for us as we wait for him. Even now, this hot and humid and seemingly endless summer, he is bringing renewal to our weary hearts.
