Wisdom and Patience Go Hand-in-Hand

Monday - October 19th

Scripture to Read Today: Proverbs 19:1-29

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A person's wisdom yields patience;

it is to one's glory to overlook an offense.

Proverbs 19:11

Fools are not very patient. They often say and do things that profoundly affect the lives of others without thinking at all. They lunge into situations without any understanding of the context. Often they declare conclusions about deep and complex problems without even taking a breath. A friend of mine displayed these patterns routinely. One day that friend asked for me to be a reference for him on a job that would require a great deal of patience with co-workers and clients. I declined to give a reference.

Of course, my declining to give the reference caused him to schedule a lunch with me to inquire why I had been unwilling to help him in his quest for a job. We got together for lunch a few weeks after I had turned down his request. Living up to the problem I saw in his taking a job that required great patience, he jumped in as soon as we sat down at the table. "Why do you hate me?" I stuttered to respond. "Hate you? I don't hate you." 

The intensity of the way he jumped into the discussion was exhibit A in my reasoning that led me to decline the opportunity to be a job reference for him. He was impulsive. He was defensive. And, he made rash judgments that tended toward the extreme. As you can imagine, lunch moved forward with a lot of intensity. I did my best to diffuse the situation and tried to help him be more objective in how he viewed himself. He promoted himself as a patient and thoughtful person. The job he had been seeking required someone with those qualities. By the end of our time together, he could see that patience and wise interactions with others was not his strong suit. Years later, he told me how critical that lunch was for his own self-awareness and growth. He even thanked me (many years later) for my honesty.

Wisdom and patience go hand-in-hand. The more you grow in life wisdom, the more patient you become with people around you. Proverbs 19:11 says, "A person's wisdom yields patience; it is to one's glory to overlook an offense." Wisdom bears the fruit of patience. Patience can get so strong that a person can overlook an offense.

Look at your own life. Do others see wisdom in your life? Do they see patience? When you grow wisdom, you increase your patience. 

People who mature in wisdom develop a greater sense and spirit of patience toward others!