What is a long time? It is interesting how the answer to that changes depending on the situation. A week might seem like a short time while on vacation but an eternity when separated from a spouse. To a kid entering high school four years seems like a long time; however, to those graduating it seems all too short. In life things come and go.

Things we look forward to, that seem like they will never come, eventually do. It is important that we be patient people. However, patience is never more important then in our dealings with people. Paul told Timothy that as a man of God he should put on this all important virtue (I Timothy 6:11).

Paul was not instructing him to allow sin to prevail in the congregation, but he was instructing Timothy to allow men time to grow in the faith. While Timothy taught diligently the word of God, he was to understand that people take time to grow. Not everyone was raised the same way we were and not everyone comes from the same circumstances.

I obeyed the gospel at a young age because I was taught it my whole life. But, many have been brought up with an atheistic, apathetic, or denominational mind set. These things take time to overcome. It is hard to change the way one thinks. If we simply throw our hand in the air and give up then we are doing a great disservice to those we are dealing with and even to the church of our Lord.

If we want to be men and women of God then we will learn patience.

Garrett Bookout