Patience & Perseverance

I had a timely talk with a good friend this morning on patience and perseverance. The morning started out with a rather disturbing discovery. I went to let our chickens out this morning only to discover that something had extricated one of my baby chickens through a 1” gap between the bottom of the door and the cement floor. These birds are just over six weeks old. I won’t go into further detail, but it reminded me of something out of a horror movie. Not the way to start my morning to say the least.

I had just been thinking the day before how my patience would payoff and I was looking forward to a dozen eggs a day from this flock in just a few months. Sometimes it seems like that is such a long ways off, but then I realize it is June already – where did May go?

Patience is one of those things I deal with daily, if not constantly. Patience for my order to arrive with my bulk supply of almonds, cashews, sunflower seeds and coconut oil; patience for the weather to warm up enough to plant our garden; patience for my mouth to heal so I can eat solid food again, like the yummy fresh wild asparagus we just picked today; patience for a web page to load so I can figure out how to put the line on my new fishing pole; patience for our house in California to sell after being on the market for almost two years.

Am I really that impatient a person, or is God just continually teaching me about perseverance? I have to remember to stay in His presence which is where my strength comes from to persevere and be patient until the answer comes. That’s where I find my joy and pleasure even when having to wait for things.

As the Paul Overstreet song says, “Till the answer comes you gotta keep praying!”

“Rejoice always, pray without ceasing…” 1 Thessalonians 5:16-17