Patience

Before I begin talking about patience, I would like to reassure you all that my blog is not turning into a religious pulpit. I will occasionally blog about technology and any other topic that suits my fancy. I include posts that consider religious topics because the doctrines of Christ will lead us to live better lives and improve our productivity at our jobs and in anything else we do.

Patience can be misapplied. The case of Eli (1 Samuel 2) could be interpreted in a few different ways. One interpretation of why he didn't restrain his sons is that he was trying to be patient with them. Perhaps he was trying to prevent hurting their feelings or making them look bad by removing them from their office. Perhaps he thought they would repent and do better so he left them in the office so he wouldn't have to remove them and then put them back in soon. Or maybe he was trying to preserve his own reputation: what would people think if he removed his own sons from their office? Would they think that he wasn't a good father and therefore unfit to be the high priest? We can be sure that Eli should have honored God more than his sons, for that was God's accusation (1 Samuel 2:29).

We should be patient in some, if not all, cases. How do we know when to be patient and when not to be patient? Should we always be patient with those that afflict us that are not within our responsibility, and determine on a case-by-case basis for those that are under our responsibility? The Lord suffered all manner of false accusations and physical harm, and he was patient in all His suffering. Whatever we come up with, we can be sure of one thing: we must honor God above all else in our actions and thoughts.