Never stop learning

But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, temperance: against such there is no law. -- Galatians 5:22-23


It's amazing that when we proclaim ourselves to be Christians (whether newly saved for been living and walking with Christ for years), we're giving God (and sometimes Satan) the room to test our faith. I am no exception.

My test during this season: PATIENCE!

For the last year, my job has hosted a paid internship for college students from Hampton University and Norfolk State University. This semester, I've been a mentor for a young lady named Danielle. I've only been working in my profession for one solid year now, so I had no idea what I was getting myself into, or what I could possibly teach her (or anyone for that matter). But, it was something I felt God was leading me to do, so...I did.

The hardest part was realizing that these interns (there's two of them) weren't going to pick up the different tasks that my other co-workers and I do on a regular basis in just a couple of hours. Sometimes, after maybe days of training, some things still didn't click. Sometimes, I would have to repeat myself multiple times about things I felt I had just said to them. And sometimes, with the stress of all the other daily work I'm responsible for, I could feel the steam seeping through my ears in frustration that, yet again, I had to repeat myself on something that I thought wasn't a hard concept to grasp.

But, I kept my cool because through this entire process, God was just whispering in my ear "be patient. They will catch on. And if they don't, don't worry."

There have been many days when I had to write this statement on my notepad, or just repeat it to myself while driving to work. As the time nears for Danielle to leave, I realize that what God showed me through being her mentor wasn't just for use in being her mentor. But patience is just one of many ways that God shows himself through us (or as the scripture above says, it's a fruit of His spirit).

If nothing else, I had to remember how patient others were with me when I first started!

The bottom line: if I don't have patience, I'm missing a part of God in my life (in addition to all the things His patience enables me to deal with). And that just ain't cool!