When Patience becomes a virtue

If you are raising children, or grandchildren, the word patience takes on a whole new meaning. In the beginning, especially with your firstborn, when you are a "novice" you have the patience the size of the Himalaya mountain...but as time progresses and the raising is in progress...you find that all this needing of your patience is chipping away at your mountain and the amount of patience you seem to own becomes less and less. Well, that's what I discovered in my own life, so I needed to make some changes, beginning with me. So I pondered on the phrase "patience is a virtue" and I wondered after all this time...what exactly is a virtue. I looked it up in the Webster's Dictionary and saw that virtue is a special kind of goodness...a special kind. Not ordinary, or easy to come by...but valued and treasured...special. A patience that becomes a virtue in your life is a patience that grew with you, that went through seasons and aged, that saw and learned, a patience that looks at the bigger picture not always at the small details...a true virtue, a true special kind of goodness. We can be amazed at how virteous God is, how He bestows such mercy and grace on our lives, how much patience He has with us, what a special kind of goodness it truly is and to understand that He supplies a never ending supply of patience to us. To believe we boldly can come before Him and ask Him to help us to mature this patience in our lives until it reflects some of His patience for us. How I want to rejoice in the times of seasoning and maturing to know what a blessed virtue it will become and that I may be able to give this to the people around me; my husband, my children, my family, friends, strangers and even in my own life. Yes Lord, let patience become a virtue in my life and help me to rejoice in the growing experience. To see the bigger picture of applying this patience and not to get hung up on small details that prevent me from freely giving out this special kind of goodness.