But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control. Against such there is no law. Galatians 5:22-23

Patience is a hard lesson and it is even harder to write about. Patience is something that I am still working on and I suspect I will always work on patience. In fact, as I write this, my cat decided it was a great time to sit (edit, stand) in my lap and as a result stepped on the keyboard and deleted this paragraph. Thankfully command+z exists and undid the cat’s doings. I laughed instead of getting angry, maybe my cat was testing my patience.

The other day I attended a ladies’ prayer and fellowship night at my church. The discussion was over apprenticeship, commonly referred to as discipleship. We are called to disciple others and to be discipled. God teaches us how to teach, how to disciple others, and further the Kingdom. Apprenticeship is similar. An apprenticeship is someone who has a master, someone who can teach them how to do the job.

We, as Christians, are apprenticed under God.

Another term for apprentice that is used in a modern-day sense is intern. I have been an intern before and this past school year, I had the honor to supervise an intern. My intern came in not knowing what my job was like, not knowing the terminology, or how to do documentation. I could have easily told her how to do an assignment one time, and then do the hands-off approach. But she was training under me, she depended on me to teach. I needed to have patience with her.

I was learning too.

I was learning how to teach, but also there were often questions asked that I did not know the answer to — times when I needed to exhibit patience and humility and phone in my supervisor.

Often times, patience is referenced when going through trials but patience is needed throughout our lives. It shows up in the mundane. Whether with an attention-seeking cat or an intern asking a rather good, yet hard, question, patience is there.

Ephesians 4:2-6 states:

With all humility and gentleness, with patience, bearing with one another in love, eager to maintain the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace. There is one body and one Spirit – just as you were called to the one hope that belongs to your call – one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all, who is over all and through all and in all.

As Christians, we are called to be together and to encourage and exhort one another. In the scripture above, four out of the nine fruits of the Spirit are mentioned. I don’t think that’s a coincidence that Paul chose those same words for the Church of Ephesus and Galatia. I think Paul wanted to emphasize that the nine fruits of the Spirit are linked, not separate.

But there is one more thing in the verse, one more attribute that is not a fruit of the Spirit.

Humility.

We are apprenticed under God. We are discipled by God. We are still learning how to walk with God. There will be times when you mess up or don’t know how to proceed. That is okay. For we are called to also be in unity with one another.

Maybe you are in a situation and you need patience, you need humility to accept help. Maybe in the next time, a brother or sister in Christ needs help and you will be there. You will be there with patience as you extend a hand out, letting them know that you are there for them in every heartache and headache.

I pray that you show patience and humility this week in yourself. It begins with you.
Elizabeth