Patience is a virtue

DAILY READING

Romans 8:22-25

FIELD NOTES

Whenever I get impatient or frustrated in life, I am usually met with the well-known adage “patience is a virtue.” To be honest, this does not help me very much and often adds to my growing frustration. However, celebrating Advent calls on us to prepare for the Incarnation, or birth of Christ, with an invitation to wait. Dietrich Bonhoeffer once wrote, “Those who do not know how it feels to anxiously struggle with the deepest questions of life, of their life, and to patiently look forward with anticipation until the truth is revealed, cannot dream of the splendor of the moment in which clarity is illuminated for them.”  

For the most important parts of our life, we must wait. The beautiful flowers we see in parks and gardens did not just come out of the ground in an instant. A newborn child did not just come from a stork! We wait. We wait for the growing, we wait for the development, we wait for the finality. Just as it is for the coming of Christ and the healing of our world…we must wait.

QUESTIONS FOR THE FIELD

• What are you waiting for? 

FAMILY FIELD TALK

• Do you like to wait? What are you waiting for right now? We have to wait for all of the most important things in life – wait for flowers to grow, wait for a baby to be born – and the waiting can help us to appreciate and get ready for what is about to happen! 

PRAYER GUIDE

Lord, help us to remember that the beauty of this season is in the waiting. Help us to live with anticipation, but also with patience. Hoping in the gift of your Son. Amen.