Growing in Patience (One Day at a Time)

Patience is one of those qualities almost everyone wishes they had more of — and few find easy. The good news is that patience can be grown. Here are practical ways to cultivate it, one day at a time.

Let trials do their work

Patience is often grown through the very things that test it: 'let patience have her perfect work, that ye may be perfect and entire, wanting nothing.' Rather than resenting delays and difficult people, we can see them as God's training ground for developing patience we couldn't gain in comfort.

Remember God's patience with you

The deepest fuel for patience is remembering how patient God has been with us — bearing with our failings again and again. When someone tests our patience, recalling God's endless forbearance toward us softens our hearts to extend the same.

Slow down and trust

Much impatience comes from being rushed and from struggling to trust God's timing. Building in margin, pausing before we react, and trusting that God is at work even in the waiting all help patience grow. He is never late, and the waiting is rarely wasted.

Growing in patience happens one day at a time — as we let trials do their maturing work, remember God's patience with us, and learn to slow down and trust his timing. It won't come overnight (patience, fittingly, takes patience), but with the Spirit's help it steadily grows. In a hurried world, a patient heart is a beautiful thing — and it's within reach as we lean on God.