patience

One of these days I'm gonna get this right. I haven't yet figured out what makes this machine, or the internet, work.

Tonight Eddie Sharp was our guest teacher. He spoke on patience. His thoughts parallelled the chapter I read at lunch today from What's So Amazing About Grace by Philip Yancy. The constant struggle to forgive over and over, sometimes for the same offense. Being patient with someone who offends over and over, or just doesn't measure up to some standards we want them to. The Grace God extends to us over and over. Yancy says: "Only by living in the stream of God's grace will I find the strength to respond with grace toward others."

I also struggle to forgive myself for the patterns of never measuring up to my own expectations, and certainly not to God's expectations. I must allow the Spirit to keep working in me to create this fruit. Fruit of patience, (with myself and others and God), the fruit of obedience.

I learned only in the last few years ( in theory but not always in practice) that the Fruit of the Spirit is produced by the Spirit, not by my good efforts to produce it. (DUH!) Come, Holy Spirit. Fill the heart of this faithful seeker.

ss