by Rick Warren
Patience is a mark of maturity. If you want to grow spiritually, plan on adding a good deal of patience into your life. When babies don't get what they want immediately, they get very upset. Most children are very impatient: they don't know the difference between "No" and "Not yet." Maturity involves the ability to wait -- to live with delayed gratification.
Patience begins by changing the way you look at something. When I'm impatient, I have limited perspective. All I'm seeing is myself; my needs, my desires, my goals, my wants, my schedule, and how you're messing up my life. First, develop a new perspective. Find a new way of looking at the situation or the person that is giving you problems.
Would you like to know the secret of success? Here it is. If you want to be a successful husband or wife, learn to see life from your spouse's point of view. If you want to be a successful parent, learn to see life from your child's point of view. If you want to be a successful businessperson, learn to see life from your customer's point of view. If you want to be a successful employer, learn to see life from your employee's point of view.
Look at the situation from the other's perspective and discover why someone feels the way they do. I don't know of anything that has greater potential for reducing conflict in your life than to put yourself in the other's shoes.
Look at what the Bible says in the Book of Proverbs. The writer explains, "A man's wisdom gives him patience; it is to his glory to overlook an offense" (Proverbs 19:11). Notice the word wisdom. Do you know what wisdom is? Wisdom is seeing life from God's point of view, getting God's perspective on the situation. From that perspective I gain three important insights (1) I'm only human; I'm not God. Of course God knows that. But He wants me to acknowledge it also. I'm not perfect and I'm not in control. In fact, most things in life I can't control. I'm only human. (2) Nobody else is perfect either, so I shouldn't be surprised or overly upset when people make mistakes or let me down. (3) God is in control, and He can use the situations, the irritations, and the problems that come into my life to accomplish His purposes for me.
Another verse in Proverb declares, "A man's steps are directed by the LORD" (Proverbs 20:24). This means you may experience some divine delays, some heavenly interruptions in your plans. Sometimes the Lord will put irritating people in your life for the purpose of teaching you to get a new perspective. Look at it from God's point of view.
All through the Bible, God equates patience with maturity. Proverbs 14:29 tells us, "A patient man has great understanding, but a quick tempered man displays folly." Patience is a mark of maturity.
How about you? Is there impatience in your life? Are you exasperated with someone or something? Think of how you can look at that person or situation from God's point of view. Get as new perspective. A man of understanding and wisdom, who sees life from God's point of view, is a person who is growing toward maturity in Christ.
Adapted from The Power To Change Your Life by Rick Warren.
