Patience-Filled Lives
God has been pouring out His gifts of repentance on our clients. We’re seeing several young client families either go back to church or try church for the first time. Most of the time, they have a wonderful experience. But sometimes the first visit is bumpy…
One of our young mom clients recently went back to church after not attending for years. She had her little girl and her 6-month-old baby with her. Both children grew restless during the service and were being neither still nor quiet. Despite the mom’s best efforts to calm them, an elderly woman sitting nearby eventually scowled at them and banged her cane on the floor several times in their direction. Our client was mortified and couldn’t wait to leave. Many of us who have been parents of small children know exactly how she felt. We also can understand how the elderly woman felt, although we wish she would have had more grace with her new young visitors.
We asked our client if there were things about the service that she liked, and she quickly responded, “Yes! The worship and the message!” We encouraged her to go back and give that church another try. She did, and later said, “I felt like the message I heard that day was just for me!”
Her boyfriend is now going to church with them, also.
Friends, the first word in a string of descriptions Paul gives us about love in 1 Corinthians 13:4 is that love is patient. Jesus is patient with us; we are to be patient with others—including new young parents whose children aren’t behaving perfectly at church.
Patience will feel like love to her. It can help her see Jesus as her very patient Savior who has been waiting for her to come back to Him—just as He does with each one of us when we wander. Love is patient.