Prayers for Patience

There’s a funny story about a little boy named Johnny, who had been sent to his room for misbehaving. After a while, the boy came out, and told his parents that he had thought over his behavior and said a prayer.

His mother was pleased. She said, “Good job! If you ask God to help you behave well, He will help you.” Johnny replied, “Oh, Mom. I didn’t ask God to help me behave. I just prayed that He would give you more patience to put up with me.”

Have you ever been low on patience? Perhaps your schedule is busy. You’re over-worked. You’re over-tired. You have too many obligations on the calendar. It’s easy, in these situations, to feel burned out, fearful and impatient.

As parents, it can be easy to speak harshly to our kids. As a husband or wife, it can be easy in these moments to react unkindly to our spouse. As an employee, perhaps this is when we say something rude to a coworker.

But the Bible tells us in Romans 8:26 that “the Spirit helps us in our weakness” when we pray. Are you feeling weak in patience? Or perhaps another area of your life? If so, I encourage you to pray about it today.

God can use us to spread the Good News Gospel to those around us, and this can start with others observing the way we act.