Looooong Tempered

Whenever I want to work on the character quality patience I go have my car serviced. Believe me; working on patience is an ongoing process in my life. Thankfully having my car tuned up is too.

I’m always lulled into false expectations because the car servicing places have names that start with: fast, jiffy, speedy, or express. In reality they should be called slow, slower, and we’ll get to it maybe. Being a one car owner has me at a disadvantage. I have to try to find someone to pick me up and return me or wait for it. Either way, God lets me work on patience. And have you ever noticed that the waiting rooms at these places have the most uncomfortable chairs? The only reading materials seem to be Field and Stream, Mechanics Digest, or 3 year old copies of News Weekly. And why is there always a gumball machine there and a copy of The Illustrated Children’s Bible? Like anyone would actually bring children to wait with them while the car is in the back, although that would require extra practice with patience. Oops, got off track. See why I need patience practice? Just thinking about those waiting rooms raises my blood pressure.

The Bible has a lot to say about Christians incorporating patience as part of their walk with God. Galatians 5:22 says that we should assimilate patience along with love, joy, peace, kindness, goodness, gentleness and self-control. Patience should be part of the product of the Hoy Spirit’s control in our lives.  This word “patience” is “makrothumia” in Greek. Makrothumia is a compound word with” makro” meaning “long” and” thumia” meaning  “temper.” How long does it take before I explode verbally? How long is my temper? We actually have the antonym of this phrase as part of our language. We call someone with little patience “short tempered.” Well, we are supposed to be long tempered as Christ followers.

This exact word is used 5 other times in the Bible:

1.       Romans 9:22 – God is long tempered with sinners.

2.       2 Corinthians 6:3-10 – We should be long tempered when people persecute us for our faith.

3.       2 Timothy 3:12 – We should be an example of being long tempered to those who look up to us.

4.       2 timothy 4:2 – We should be long tempered when we correct others.

5.       1 Peter 3:20 – God’s long temper was the impetus for providing our salvation through Jesus Christ.

I’m so thankful that my God is long tempered with me. I’m also thankful that the Holy Spirit helps me with my short temper.

So off to patience practice I go. The car needs servicing and I need to go through my patience drills. The result should be that my car performs better and maybe I’ll be more long tempered and perform better too.

Hopefully I’ll be able to show some patience improvement

until it’s time for my next tune up.