Colossians 3:12 “Since God chose you to be the holy people he loves, you must clothe yourselves with tenderhearted mercy, kindness, humility, gentleness, and patience.”

As parents, we have to wear many hats that coordinate our working outfits.  As we fit into our roles of caretaker, bus driver, medical adviser, janitor/maintenance, comforter, counselor, cook, dish washer, and babysitter, our jobs are endless most days.  And that’s just in the home. If you work outside the home, add 1600 more responsibilities to manage!

It’s important to dress properly for the roles we have in our families, and the instruction in Colossians embraces the godly qualities parents need on a daily basis.  With this series, I want to offer some godly wisdom for our roles by offering prayers that will help you “dress for success” — plus some encouragement from God’s word that we can apply to our daily lives.

Week 1:  Pray for patience with patience.

Our friends warn us not to pray for patience because it brings situations and circumstances in which our lives will require it.  However, it’s the most coveted quality needed for the terrible twos!  Parents need patience but we often attach expectations with it.  Do we want results at the end of the patience?  Don’t we expect our children to obey or come around to our way of thinking regarding obedience or direction?

God gives a different kind of patience.  He knows that we will act out or run away, get in the way, or botch a few attempts at direction and obedience.  But He still offers His perfect patience in return.  In fact, He knows our weaknesses so well, and knows we want things so instantly.  He patiently gives what is good for us and for our good, even when we don’t know what we want.  He is SO patient with us, even as we are waiting with our arms crossed our chests, pouting with our toes tapping like a impatient child.

May we exhibit the kind of godly patience for our two-year-old and our twenty-somethings; the kind of long suffering patience that God offers us.  No expectations attached  – but given from a heart of His parent’s kind of love that we might receive the patience needed day after day, hour after hour, and year after year.  Patience gets us over the humps and bumps of the terrible twos and bridges the gaps in the teen years.  God’s fruit-giving patience bears a long-suffering love that endures.

God, we pray for patience for ourselves and for our children.  We often lose our tempers, and say things we don’t mean in the heat of the moment causing grief, exasperation, tension and pain.  We stumble through the day, just trying to make it to tomorrow instead of giving what you give us so well, perfect patience.  Show us Your heart of love for our children, so that Your love will bear a perfect patience in us, and building us up to have a enduring kind of love with no expectation in return.  We know that you love them more than we ever could.  May your patience flow through our actions, words and responses and Your patience be a gift to those we care for.

Take away verses:

• Romans 12:12 “Rejoice in hope, be patient in tribulation, be constant in prayer.”
• Romans 8:25  “But if we hope for what we do not see, we wait for it with patience.”
• Galatians 6:9 “And let us not grow weary of doing good, for in due season we will reap, if we do not give up.”
• Ephesians 4:2 “With all humility and gentleness, with patience, bearing with one another in love,”
• 1 Corinthians 13:4 “Love is patient and kind; love does not envy or boast; it is not arrogant.”