Love is patient.

I think most people see patience as little more than holding back anger. We have been told to hold your breathe and count to ten until the anger subsided. Not giving in to that anger is everyone's idea of patience. While holding back is a good thing, it is not patience. And sadly, when we think of love is patience, many of us interpret it to mean love is really angry but it holds back anger. As a result, we think that impatience is a characteristic of love. We have come to expect the absence of any sort of patience in the midst of "real" burning love. Because of this, people tend to redefine God's heart accordingly. If we keep making the same mistake over and over again, God will eventually lose his patience and release anger on us.

I have learned that when you see the heart of something, you will not become so easily stressed or angry at the things that surround it. It's the lack of knowledge that causes you to become impatient. Imagine you worked in the emergency room of a hospital, one evening a two year old child was brought to you who had boiling water spilled down the front of his body. The child is screaming and wailing. What are the chances you would lose your temper at him due to the wailing? You see the heart of the situation and you understood why he was wailing and therefore, you are patient.

Love is the same way. When you love someone, you will see the injured child in everything you do. Love's eyes look beyond the flesh and into the heart. People who lack patience are blind to the heart. Love sees into a person's heart because love originates in the heart and is directed toward the heart. When looking for patience, we must turn to love to find it.

God is patient with you because he understands you completely. When He sees you struggling with sin, His eyes see past the sin and straight into your heart. He knows why you do what you do. His patience with you is not a case of holding back anger, but that He knows you well He doesn't even begin to get angry. Your Father see the injured child in everything you do.

"extracts from Misunderstood God by Darin Hufford"