Luke 8:15 15 But that on the good ground are they, which in an honest and good heart, having heard the word, keep it, and bring forth fruit with patience. (KJV) Patience in Scripture seems or describe three types of living. Endurance of trials

The first type of Patience is Endurance of trials. We think of this kind of patience when we hear things such as "Lord give me patience." As one person said, "Patience is the ability to stand something as long as it happens to the other fellow"
Consider this from the San Francisco Chronicle, Sunday, November 24, 1996, page 10.
My 6-year-old son and his friend have just left the dining room, where I am writing. The boys were wearing black sweat pants and black turtlenecks they had pulled from Ryan's dresser. They cinched the pants at the waist with belts, through which they had slipped wooden swords. Then they crept up on me. When I looked up from my computer, they ran squealing from the room. This stunt was repeated about 10 times in eight minutes. The repetition did nothing to diminish the hilarity for the two boys (or increase it for me). The pirate-spy routine had been preceded by attempts to pogo in the family room, roller blade in the kitchen, dribble a basketball down the stairs, burp the letters in their names (my son has shown genius in this area) and play catch in the stairwell.
I took away the pogo stick, put the roller blades outside, stored the basketball in a closet, told the boys I'd heard enough burping for one day and guided the game of catch to the driveway.
Still ahead: the friend's anguished departure, subtraction homework, spelling flash cards, dinner, dishes, books and a pokey meander into bed. During this time I had to finish my column. Two nights earlier I had dinner with a friend who was in town on business from Los Angeles. I drove into the city early so we could catch up, and we ended up walking through the shops around Union Square. She has a 3-year-old boy and a baby due in three months. At the Banana Republic, she ran her hands over a soft throw blanket.
"Oh, isn't this wonderful?" she asked. Then she found a comforter. "Look at this," she said. At Saks, she found a flannel nightshirt. "Feel this," she said. I looked at her. "Do you realize everything you've looked at has to do with sleep?" Once upon a time her shopping tastes ran to spike heels and miniskirts. She laughed. "When I get up in the morning," she said, "all I think about is how many hours until I can get back in."
The next night I sat in a darkened room at a Zen retreat not far from my house. The room was packed with people who had come to meditate then listen to a lecture on spirituality. The teacher mentioned how he had traveled to Asia as a young man to learn the ways of the monks. He sat in a snowy forest for days with little food, drink or sleep. He sat like a yogi on the bank of the Ganges River for 20 hours at a stretch though his legs burned with pain and his eyes longed for rest. He explained that the effort of his mind to overcome the deprivation and distractions took him to higher states of clarity and vision and taught him patience.
I was thinking about this, and about my L.A. friend, as my son and his pal staged a sword fight in the hallway. The connections of the last few days began to fall into place. I thought about the repeated reminders and admonishments we parents deliver through the day, the noise, the lack of sleep, the long waits for our child to get dressed, clean his room or get out of the car.
("C'mon, we're going into the store now. Put down the soccer ball. No, we can't take the dog. What are you doing? That cookie's probably been under the seat for a month. C'mon. Now. I mean it. Don't worry about the cookie. We'll throw it out in the store. *Let's go.*" The only things children do quickly are go to the bathroom, eat dessert, open gifts and climb fences separating playgrounds from deadly freeways.)
Suddenly it clicked. I understood why monks must sit in snow and on the banks of the Ganges. They don't have children It occurred to me that, in my search for self-improvement and spirituality, I had everything I needed in my own home. Every parent does. There are the long painful nights we sit without moving because one twitch might wake the (potentially) very loud baby in our arms. There is the excruciating mind and muscle control to stifle a smile when our child earnestly tells us he didn't pick up his toys because he got hit with a ball at school and suffered brain damage.
There are the tests of concentration when you're talking to a client on the phone and your child appears in the doorway in nothing but boots and a gun belt and acts out the final scene from "High Noon."
There are the years on end of getting to sleep after midnight because only when the kids are asleep and the phone isn't ringing can you get your chores finished, then you're up at 6 to make lunches and get breakfast and shutttle them to school before you go, bleary-eyed, to work.
Religious students travel the globe to find tests of will, patience, deprivation and selflessness. Parents live them every day. Anyone looking for a mysterious, contradictory and fulfilling religion couldn't do much better than child-rearing. All the components are there: rituals, generosity, penance, guilt and desperate prayer, all punctuated by moments of transcendent clarity and unmatched joy.

Patience of this type is seen as building character.

         There once was an oyster
         Whose story I tell,
         Who found that some sand
         Had got into his shell.
         It was only a grain,
         But it gave him great pain.
         For oysters have feelings
         Although they're so plain.

         Now, did he berate
         The harsh workings of fate
         That had brought him
         To such a deplorable state?
         Did he curse at the government,
         Cry for election,
         And claim that the sea should
         Have given him protection?

         No - he said to himself
         As he lay on a shell,
         Since I cannot remove it,
         I shall try to improve it.
         Now the years have rolled around,
         As the years always do,
         And he came to his ultimate
         Destiny - stew.

         And the small grain of sand
         That had bothered him so
         Was a beautiful pearl
         All richly aglow.
         Now the tale has a moral,
         For isn't it grand
         What an oyster can do
         With a morsel of sand?

         What couldn't we do
         If we'd only begin
         With some of the things
         That get under our skin.

         Author Unknown

The second kind of patience can be called forbearance. We read "Love is patient." One person noted, "Living would be easier if men showed as much patience at home as they do when waiting for a fish to bite." and another said, "Patience on the road may often prevent patients in the hospital."
Thomas A Kempis noted, "All men commend patience, although few be willing to practice it."
In the supermarket was a man pushing a cart which contained a screaming, bellowing baby. The gentleman kept repeating softly, "Don't get excited, Albert; don't scream, Albert; don't yell, Albert; keep calm, Albert." A woman standing next to him said, "You certainly are to be commended for trying to soothe your son, Albert." The man looked at her and said, "Lady, I'm Albert."

The third type of patience may be called waiting in anticipation. When I was told my topic would be patience, I sent a note out or my e-mail friends or ask for help Here is one reply I wrote, "If you would send me stuff I can use in a SS lesson about Patience" the answer was "wait"

A young man once asked God how long a million years was to Him. God replied, "A million years to me is just like a single second in your time." Then the young man asked God what a million dollars was to Him. God replied, "A million dollars to me is just like a single penny." Then the young man got up his courage and asked, "God, could I have one of your pennies?" God smiled and replied, "Certainly, just a second."

Endurance
Rom 5:1-10
     1. What results can difficult circumstances have in a person's life?

     2. What keeps us from being full of joy and hope in the middle of difficult circumstances?

     3. In what ways does suffering produce endurance?

     4. Why would you agree or disagree with the statement, "Life is 10 percent what happens to you and 		90 percent how you respond to what happens to you"?

     5. What good has ever come out of a difficult situation in your life?

Forbearance
Rom 15:1-7
     1. What consideration should a Christian give to the opinions of fellow believers on controversial 			matters?

     2. What three virtues foster unity among Christians?

     3. How can you show humility, gentleness, and patience in dealing with a difficult relationship this 			week?

     4. What situations tend to test your patience?

     5. How does God use others to build patience in our lives?

Waiting in Anticipation
Heb 6:11-15
     1. How did Abraham respond  to God's promise, and what was the result? 

     2. How is the hope that Christ gives described in this passage?

     3. Where is the believer's hope anchored?

     4. How does Abraham's patience in waiting for God's promise encourage you?

     5. To what promise of God do you need to cling at this time in your life?

     6. What makes it hard to wait on God's timing?