“Dad,” my daughter groaned, “Mom picked me up late again.”
“Really?” I replied. “Aren’t you fortunate!”
“Huh?”
“Kelsey, the day is coming when you’re going to get married. You will be frustrated, annoyed, perplexed, confused, and even angry by the man you marry. You know why?”
“Yes, James 3:2 — ‘We all stumble in many ways.’ I’ve heard you say it millions of times.”
“Right. How providential, then, that God has given you two very imperfect parents who sometimes unintentionally teach you the necessity of patience!”
As my children grew up, I stressed the importance of their relationship skills as brothers and sisters, sons and daughters, to help them when they become husbands or wives, fathers or mothers.
Patience is the most important of these skills. Patience can be seen in God’s patience and slow to anger. Consider this stunning example from Nehemiah 9:17-18: “You are a forgiving God, gracious and compassionate, slow to anger and abounding in love. You did not abandon them [the Israelites], even when they cast for themselves an image of a calf and said, ‘This is your god.’…
