This morning as I was doing my morning time with the Lord I came across Ecclesiastes 7:8-9 which says “Better is the end of a thing than the beginning thereof: and the patient in spirit is better than the proud in spirit. Be not hasty in thy spirit to be angry: for anger rests in the bosom of fools.”
I remember I used to have the worst temper. I had a short fuse and an impatient heart. I would snap at the least little thing. I wanted everything when I wanted it. I did not want to wait in a line, or get behind a slow driver, or wait for something to come in the mail. I was impatient with people, impatient with circumstances, impatient with life, and I was miserable.
Shortly after I was saved, I started praying that the Lord would help me with my impatience. It was kind of comical, because the more I prayed the more I was thrust into situations which needed my patients. Without realizing it I was asking God to put me in situations where my patients would be tested.
When I went to the grocery store no matter how short the line was it was always the slowest line. I remember standing in lines at various stores in town, watching the longer lines zip right by. I would run over to stand in the fast line, only for the line to suddenly stop for one reason or another.
If I was on a trip, it would seem I was always behind the driver who had no idea they were driving below the speed limit. I would get to mad and irritable that I would have to pray to God the help me be patient and enjoy the slow speed.
Ecclesiastes 7:8-9 tells us that being patient and angry shows us to be fools. I do not know about you, but I do not want to be labeled a fool. Let’s learn to be patient with our circumstances, patient with each other, and patient with ourselves.
Let’s go into this new year with a commitment to have a more peaceful year by being more peaceful ourselves. See we want things to change but we usually try to get that change to start in somebody else. Maybe this year we try to change ourselves. Call on God to help us and remember if you do not know the Lord as your personal savior; calling on Him to come into your heart is the best way to start.
That will I speak 