“‘PATIENCE'” was written in big letters on the back of the small bus. I saw the vehicle this morning when I was on my way to my favoured coffee shop, where I can watch our main street when I look through the window. On my way to the coffee shop I bought our local paper in the shop near by.
The word “patience” I remember of course from my reading of the Bible. In First Corinthians 13:4 we read that “Love is patient, …”
What is patience? The New Bible Commentary says that patient means being “passively ‘long-tempered’ with people.” A dictionary (Collins English Dictionary) has this definition for patience, “enduring difficult situations with an even temper.”
Sitting in the coffee-shop and reading the column of the Deputy Mayor (The Northland Age, Thursday, September 28, 2017), I also come across the word “patience”. In the column she writes about highly-useful approaches of District councillors. One of them is “having patience”. She finishes her column with this sentence, “And if you don’t have patience now, you will soon develop some if you wish to succeed.”
I mentioned already that I can see from the coffee shop the traffic on our main street, Commerce Street. Looking up from the paper and still thinking about what I have just read of course, I see a small bus passing by on Commerce Street and on the back I read again “‘PATIENCE.'”
What a surprise and encouragement!
