Love is Patient

"Love never gives up" 1cor 13:4a (Paraphrased Message bible)

Patience according to Webster dictionary:
The will or the ability to endure pain or trouble, with composure & without complaining, refusing to be provoked, calmly tolerating delay, diligent, persevering.

How do we love our spouse with such love? Being patient with our spouse can be very difficult at times. (I would be the first to admit that, but more so due to putting myself first…it’s all about me, me, me, me)….ah, come on I know there’s more of us out there who think this way…that’s why it’s called selfishness. It’s in our human nature to feel this world evolves around me (right)?!. Okay, maybe I’m the only one willing to be honest here. ;} If it wasn’t for God’s grace and Him giving me the patience to make it through the day I don’t think patience would even run through my veins.
Let’s look at a fictitious scenario… It’s been a long night with your little one teething and you’ve been up all night consoling them trying to sleep sitting up to help comfort them so they can at least sleep. This can make it very difficult trying to be patient during the day.

Lack of sleep, mixed with a short temperament (due to the lack of sleep) can add the pressure of trying to make sure the house is clean and dinner is on the table right when you husband walks through the door. Let me tell you patience kind of wears thin at that point. That is why I believe it does take the choice to choose that we will endure through this moment of lack of sleep and frustration as the baby is screaming, the house is trashed and the dinner is 2 hours late. While your husband has had a long day at work, and all he wants to do is eat and relax. At this moment, all you want to do is hand over the baby and take a nice, long, hot bath.
To really think we are going to calmly tolerate the complaints, that dinner isn’t ready and that our spouse has had a long day to just come home to a trashed house & screaming baby…

(What, they don’t think you haven’t had a

long day…and now to listen to more complaints

with a constant screaming child in the

back ground).

It’s hard not to provoke a fight or disagreement B/C we aren’t necessarily in our normal frame of mind.
It is possible to make it through a night and day like this, keeping our composure without complaining. (I’m still waiting for that day) ;} But we can persevere, being diligent and holding our tongues. Thankfully, we don’t have every single day be this way. This fictitious scenario maybe a real scenario in some of our lives. But, I do want to say that it is possible to be patient with our spouse even when we both have had a long day. When we make the choice to love our spouse with patience we are able to do so with the good Lord’s help. I cannot love my husband on my own, being patient through disagreements and not feel I have to share my own opinion. But I do attest it is possible.
My Husband and I were having a disagreement last week and he started getting defensive. So, I calmly listened to his point of view and once he was done I asked him why he was getting so defensive. Then I proceeded to explain where I was coming from and to my amazement, my patience and willingness to stay calm actually showed my husband I respected his opinion and even though we were disagreeing it did not turn out to be a full blown fight. And by the grace of God patience actually dissolved the disagreement. (now I wish I could say I am patient with my husband all the time but that would be telling a big, huge, fat lie…a matter of fact the previous week before this whole disagreement I was suppose to work on patience and I flopped big time, so this past week I’m still working on loving my husband through patience….and for the rest of my life.) lol