Few people I know enjoy waiting. Waiting often requires a degree of patience. Depending on the situation, patience may be the last thing we feel like exhibiting.
When I was young, every summer my mother poured juice into plastic forms and placed them into the freezer to make popsicles. Being impatient, I often pulled those popsicles out too early, and ended with semi-frozen slush which needed to be put back into the freezer if I expected to have a popsicle. Patience was required while waiting for the popsicles to freeze. That’s for certain.
As I grew older, I realized waiting for popsicles to freeze wasn’t the only thing that would require a degree of patience.
Waiting to open presents at Christmas probably tops the list, but there were other things which required patience.
Here’s a sampling of my list. What would you add from your own list which required you to be patient?
I found waiting for special vacations or occasions required patience. As did waiting for the school year to end. Waiting to see my friends at church camp each summer was always hard. Being old enough to get my driver’s license was another thing that required a degree of patience. Finally, waiting to graduate.
And that only took me through my teen years. After that, the opportunities to exhibit patience only increased.
When my son was born, my need for patience was taken to a whole different level. Although grateful 
for the gift of my child, I needed patience for each new season we traveled through together.
I needed a large degree of patience as I interacted with him through the toddler years of nos. After a lull, there came the teenage years of defiance. Even now, the adult years of occasional bad choices require patience on my part.
Have you ever taken the time to stop and think about how patient God is with us?
As our Father, he celebrates our birth and watches us grow through each new season we travel through together. His patience is on display through our spiritual toddler years of nos. He bears patiently with us through the teen years of defiance, and all those times when we think we know better than he does. God’s patience endures through our adult years as we strive to resemble him, yet oftentimes, come up short and miss the mark.
Waiting for juice to turn into popsicles takes a degree of patience. Regardless of how badly I wanted that juice to become a popsicle, there was nothing I could do to move the process along any faster. When I stopped pulling the popsicles out of the freezer too soon and allowed the juice to freeze, the final reward was well worth any degree of patience it took.
Growing in the likeness of Christ requires a degree of patience with ourselves as well. It is a life-long process.
Thankfully, the Bible gives us step-by-step instructions on how we can become more Christ-like.
As with those popsicles I waited for, the final reward of a life lived in Christ is well worth any degree of patience it takes on our part to accomplish.
What do you find difficult to patiently wait for in your life?
I wish you well.
Sandy
