But the fruit of the Spirit is… patience… (Galatians 5:22)

The one who sows to please the Spirit, from the Spirit will reap eternal life. Let us not become weary in doing good, for at the proper time we will reap a harvest if we do not give up. (Galatians 6: 8b, 9)

Patience: 1. enduring pain, trouble, etc., without complaining. 2. calmly tolerating delay, confusion, etc. 3. diligent; persevering

—Webster’s New World Dictionary

Patience, which is a virtue, should not be confused with apathy, which is a vice.

One winter, to scratch my gardening itch, I bought peat pots and started plants in the house. In the discount basket at the hardware store I found seed packets proclaiming, “Hardy perennials seeds — anybody can grow them!” so and thought, “I guess I’m ‘anybody:’ these should grow.” I put them to bed in the little peat cups where they sprouted beautifully. Despite my tending, they remained unpromising-looking. When I planted them in the garden, they promptly disappeared and remained incommunicado for the rest of the summer

By the next spring, I decided the poor things had expired, so I planted annuals on top of them. However, I discovered my perennials were not dead at all — only on an extended vacation. Everything came up all at once in a mad confusion.

I should have been more patient.

How many times I have planted eternal seeds in some area of my life, waited and waited and waited, finally gave up on God, took matters into my own hands, and made a big mess — when I should have been patient a little longer.

How many times I have prayed and prayed for someone or about a certain situation, then decided to do things my own way instead of waiting on God to show me what to do?

There are times to step forward in faith at the direction of the Holy Spirit.

Then there are times when the Holy Spirit says, “Wait. Be patient. At the right moment, I’ll show you the next step. I’m doing something that takes time.”

To better understand the sweet fruit of patience, here are small slices of definition that help explain God’s variety of patience.

“Patience,” hupomone or makrothumia, which is often translated as patience in the New Testament, implies suffering, enduring, or waiting by a determination of the will and not simply because of necessity. We are told to develop this essential Christian virtue.