Patience.

Be joyful in hope, patient in affliction, faithful in prayer.

-Romans 12:12 

God has been teaching me patience recently. Let me just say, it's much more difficult than I thought it would be. In chapel a while ago, the speaker was talking about patience and how it isn't just about learning to wait for something. It's also choosing not to retaliate when we have the opportunity to. This really struck me...how many times have I been tempted to give people a taste of their own medicine? And how many times have I actually acted on those temptations? Sadly, I've done this far too many times.
I asked God to help me become more patient, and boy is he doing it. There have been many times lately where I'm tempted to be crabby with people or retaliate because of something they've done or said to me. Each time though, I can hear that little reminder telling me that I NEED to be patient. Patience is a way of showing love to people. This is yet another way we can try to love our neighbors the way they deserve to be loved. It's so crucial that we stop thinking of others as objects. I've said this before in my blog posts, but we need to see people as walking stories. We underestimate just how talented people are at hiding their hurts. You and I don't know what internal battles people are going through... Someone could be wearing a smile, yet they're dead or hurting inside. We all know this, because we've ALL been through it in one way or another. Keeping all this in mind, it goes without saying that there's no legitimate reason we should treat anyone poorly. And quite frankly, it doesn't hurt to treat people with kindness. Obviously I'm not perfect and I fail in showing patience and kindness often, but I'm praying that God will keep reminding me of how I need to treat others. And not only that He'll remind me, but that I'll follow His instruction.
I'm not entirely sure what drove me to write this post...I think it's mostly just serving as another reminder to myself. And maybe it can be a sort of accountability thing with those around me who I know will read this. Sometimes writing out my current struggles helps me to fully focus on them....but maybe these few paragraphs can even inspire you to start working on the same thing in your life.