Patience = Understanding

Today is a special day for our church family. We will eat dinner in our new fellowship hall building for the first time tonight.  Have I ever told you what good cooks we have at Shellman Bluff Baptist?  Let me tell you, I could weigh 300 pounds in a heartbeat if I did not have some discipline!

            Seriously though, this has been a long time coming.  In early 2021 we elected a church campus master planning committee that met with an advisor who helped us draw up a master plan for our future. Then in August of that same year we elected a building committee specifically to bring a recommendation to the church concerning the new building. They met for more than a year before making that proposal which the church readily approved. Finally, on January 8, 2023 we broke ground. And on January 7, 2024 we dedicated our new building.

            May I say that my patience has been tested over the last year.  We fully expected to occupy the building earlier, but there were several delays in receiving materials. One necessary item was ordered the first week of April, but was not delivered until November.  And so, we waited, and we hoped, and we dreamed, and we waited.

            I’m not very good at waiting. How about you?  And yet the Bible teaches us that patience is a necessary part of the Christian life. Paul lists it as one of the nine character traits of the fruit of the Spirit.  And Proverb 14:29-30 tells us, “Patience leads to abundant understanding, but impatience leads to stupid mistakes.”  Ouch!

            I’m learning to be more patient. I wish I had been as patient with my sons as I am with my granddaughters.  I pray that I will continue to learn and practice patience. And I am so very grateful that God has been patient with me.  He knows I need it.