November 15
Scripture: Prov 16:32
Source author: Jim Zabloski
November 15
A Kind of Patient Love Better to be patient than powerful; better to have self-control than to conquer a city. —Proverbs 16:32
My wife’s school has a tight-knit faculty, but one special education teacher is an outcast. She has ADHD, which at age fifty-five is unattractive if not irritating—especially when she forgets her medication. She often interrupts, is flighty, scatterbrained, and just gets on everyone’s nerves. One day my wife, Linda, said, “All she needs is someone to love her like Jesus loves her.” Linda determined to be kind, giving, and patient with this woman. Over time, they became friends, and a few of the teachers who shunned her began to understand why she behaved as she did. Some even changed their attitudes toward her and began working more closely with her. We cannot measure the value of patience and kindness and how that demonstrates tangibly that God loves someone. But if we will take the time to show patience, we can often change a bad situation to a good one.
Sometimes love means counting to ten more than once. — Jim Zabloski —