We wanted to buy mature fast-growing trees to plant as a screen as we didn’t have the patience to wait years for them to grow. However, we learned there are some issues with this. Firstly, fast-growing trees tend not to be as strong, are more susceptible to insects and disease, and don’t live as long. Secondly, these “mature” tees grown in bags often have issues adapting to growth in the real world. However, it’s not just with trees that we lack patience. It’s with most things in life, especially in our relationships. The word patience comes from the Latin root “pati”, which means suffer. Maybe this is why we dislike patience. After all, who likes to suffer? We know we must be compassionate and kind, humble and gentle…but only if you respond immediately to me. It’s for this reason, we are told to add one more thing to these virtues – “As God’s chosen people, holy and dearly loved, clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience” (Colossians 3:12). Like trees, these important fruits of compassion, kindness, humility, and gentleness, only become strong and able to resist the evils of this world, if we grow them slowly, every day, in the soil of patience. Pause. Think how patient God is with you (1 Timothy 1:16). Respond. Open Bible – http://bit.ly/col3v12, http://bit.ly/1ti1v16
