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Today we are going to talk about the process of developing patience. In our earth suits, our skin, our humanity, we have this tendency to be self-centered. Have you noticed that in other people? In the process of producing patience in our spiritual walk, self-centeredness can become a huge stumbling block. If we continue to be selfish and self-centered, those narcissistic tendencies will keep us from developing patience. Selfishness really is the root of all sin, but if we can kick ourselves off the throne of our own life, and put God there, we will see amazing changes in our behavior. So moving away from selfishness, and toward selfLESSness is one of the first steps in the process of becoming a patient person. Another step is beginning to break old impatient habits. How do you typically respond in frustrating situations? Why not do something in the natural that reminds you to be patient. How about counting, covering your mouth, taking a minute to think before you respond, or simply leaving the area for a moment. When you have a plan in place of what you will do when the frustrating situation arises, you can act on your plan instead of reacting in your flesh. Give yourself some tools to work with. One great tool that replaced negative habits with a positive one was from a man who said this before he started any conversation that might be sensitive. “I want to state this positively, because I cherish you and I value our relationship”. Those same words could change every conversation you participate in. What are some ways to develop patience? 1) By rooting out selfishness, 2)having a plan in place, and 3)then starting sensitive conversations stating things positively, filled with love and respect. Those are some great tools to put into your relationship tool belt.

This week we will be looking at patience as one of the characteristic that this world needs more of. In I Thes 5:14, we are told to be patient with everyone. I know for me, there are some people in my world that make it easy to patient. It is easy to be patient with those who are patient with us! Others are a challenge! No matter who we are dealing with, maybe its your kids, your mate or your boss, we believe operating in patience has the potential to change us from the inside out. Outside in has never worked. When there is a change of heart, then there can be a change of attitude, and then a change of action. I want to challenge you to develop the habits of operating in patience and be made over into the image of Jesus, so the we can begin to change our world. Patience is challenging! But when we make it a habit to act in patience, the image of Jesus will be visible in us! How awesome to be made over into His likeness. The happens when we don’t only love in word, but also in deed! So when it comes to patience, we can realize that nobody is perfect, and expecting perfection really is unrealistic. Why do we expect perfection? It may be that we are trained to look for imperfections. We don’t purchase anything with flaws, and to admit that we have flaws, and those around us do too, is hard on our pride. It may be that we just haven’t determined that a patient person is now who we are in Christ, and how we act once we have come into relationship with a loving and patient God. We can change! Let’s let patience have its perfect work in us.

Mon 15
Intro:
I want to thank my daughter Leah for being the guest host of my blog for the last two weeks. While I was away, my new granddaughter arrived! Being a grandparent is wonderful! With what is going on in our world, now is a good time to talk about how to show love better to each other. Hi, this is Dorette Schaal with your dailyeword. As we continue this journey, thank you for joining us. Together we can make love a way of life, and positively change our world. One key ingredient to love is patience. We know the scripture from I Corinthians 13, love is patient, love is kind. Here is your encouraging word about patience for today.

This week we will be looking at patience as one of the key characteristics of a loving person. I have heard patience described this way; patience is accepting the imperfections of others. We are not perfect, and neither is anyone else. Probably one of the biggest places we can use more patience is in traffic. Frustration and aggravation happens more in traffic than we can even imagine. Whenever anything stops up the normal flow, drivers get impatient. Patience is accepting imperfections not just in people, but in all of life. Things don’t go perfectly all the time. Situations don’t turn our perfectly. People don’t respond perfectly, or act perfectly in each endeavor. So we get to choose to walk in love and respond patiently, even in the midst of imperfections in life. If we get impatient with inanimate objects, is it any surprise that we are impatient and act unbecomingly toward people? So how do you rate on the patience scale? Let’s say 1 is the worst and 10 is best. It may be hard to admit, but many of us, are at the bottom end of the patience scale. If you are one who consistently gets impatient, don’t be disheartened. Everyone is a work in progress, including you! This might be one of the most challenging characteristics to work on. It may be because we like instant gratification, and being patient takes patience! As we study patience this week, I believe that you are becoming more like our creator, who has been more than patient with us all!

I love that the Bible tells us to encourage one another. I hope you are doing that on a regular basis to those around you. Be the cheerleader, be the encourager, be the edifier, be the one to stir others up to love and good works. I have noticed that sometimes, no one is around to be your cheerleader and that is the time that we can use the same spoon that we stir others up with to stir ourselves up. Encourage yourself. Stir yourself up. Can we do that personally? You bet we can and we should! Give yourself a pat on the back. Tell yourself you did a good job! Make sure you do that for others, but if no one is around to do it for you, you can be your own encourager. The Holy Spirit on the inside of you is there doing that for you all the time. You can depend on the Holy Spirit inside of you to know who needs encouragement around you. It is important that we tell people how much they have touched our lives. We can speak the Word of God over their lives and remind them that God’s heart is for them. That will help them draw closer to Jesus, which is our whole motivation. Encourage others, encourage yourself, and depend on the Holy Spirit within you to lift up the broken hearted and bring hope to the hopeless.

Stimulate one another to love and good works is what Hebrews 10:24 says. We should be encouraging one another to show the love of God to one another. And we should encourage each other to do good deeds. We know that it is by grace that we are saved, but after salvation we are to be like Jesus who went about doing good. How can we do good? The Bible says, that Jesus went about doing good by, healing the sick, and bringing hope to the hopeless. We can all do that. Really, can we do that? Yes, that is what we are here to do! All of us can pray for each other. We can see good things happen in others lives by the power of prayer. We are believers who believe and we are bold enough to ask for big things. God is the God of impossible situations, and we believe the Word of God that says with God all things are possible. So stimulate each other to show the love of God in tangible ways. Like the song says, His love never fails, never gives up, never runs out! What a wonderful promise, we have more than enough love to give away. And at the same time, let’s remind each other to do good! We can encourage one another to be better and do better! What a wonderful demonstration of the love of God to the world!

Comfort one another is what I Thessalonians 4:18 tells us to do. The word comfort is pretty amazing. It means to console another, but it also means to enable and empower one another. It is the same root word that Jesus used as a name for the Holy Spirit. He is the Comforter, but He is also the enabler. He is the one called along side to empower us to follow God’s purposes. The Holy Spirit is at work within us, helping us to do what God wants. He is enabling us to follow God’s plan for our lives. If we look at the life of Paul, he was an encourager, but also a comforter. Paul through the power of the Holy Spirit enabled us to understand the revelation of the Word of God. Paul’s letters were filled with encouragement and cheerleading. He longed for the church to succeed in following Jesus. Paul longed for us to know who we were in Christ. His letters were filled with the wonder of God working both in us and through us. Paul’s greatest comfort to us was the revelations that nothing can separate us from the love of God. Not height, not depth, no thing can keep God’s love from us. What an amazing comfort we experience when we receive the love of God. We can comfort one another with those same words!

I think we can all use a cheerleader! The Bible tells us to encouraging one another daily in Hebrews 3:13. Cheerleaders have a way of encouraging you to go for it. Make another touchdown, shoot another 3 pointer, kill that volleyball. They get the crowd on your side, and keep the momentum going your way. We should be each other’s cheerleader. When we know someone is facing a battle, we can be the one who is giving them a call and telling them that we are on their side, that they can make it, and all things are possible with God. Spiritually, we encourage others by saying and doing things that make God more visible to them. Be full of the Word so you can give a word of encouragement at any time. Encouragement shouldn’t be a luxury in life, it should be a staple. As parents, each day we can encourage our kids. They get enough criticism from everywhere else. Making a habit of speaking life words over them will reinforce that they are amazing. They don’t need to hear it only when they have done something exceptional, they should hear it regularly. What are some of the things people around you have said to encourage you? Do you remember your parents encouraging you? Do you remember a teacher or a fellow student who helped you grow and do and be a better person? Thank God for the cheerleaders in your life. They probably couldn’t do the splits, but they were patting you on the back, and encouraging you with words that made a difference. Why not become a cheerleader for someone else today? We can encourage one another.

I Thessolonians 5:11 tells us to build each other up. Another word for build up is to edify. Edify also means encourage. We live in a world where it is easy to tear things down. We are on the lookout for flaws, and words are spoken in homes everyday that tear people and relationships down. What a wonderful world we would live in if we would all be encouragers and daily build one another up. What if no negative words were spoken, and no one ever had to ask forgiveness what they said, but didn’t mean, in your home? We can live on that much higher plane. That means we have to watch what we say, how we say it and even when we say it. Out of the overflow of our heart, we speak words of life. You’re not getting the leftovers, you are getting the cream off the top, and it is very delicious. Being involved in a Bible study is one of the best ways to be in a building environment. You are learning the Word, and like iron sharpening iron, we are smoothing off rough edges, and getting sharper all at the same time. In a small group you get the advantage of learning to apply the Word of God in your life, on a daily basis. In a Bible Study setting, what we are learning ourselves, others can benefit from. Once we make it our own, we can talk about how it is working in our lives, or at our house, or at our job. So be a builder. Have a good foundation and start building level upon level on your spiritual house. We can go higher, and encourage others to go higher with us.

How often are you surprised to hear that a friend or acquaintance has walked through a very hard time, and you were totally unaware of it? It happens all the time. People think that you don’t have time to be concerned about them, or they think you wouldn’t understand, or they just feel they should be able to make it on their own. The Bible tells us to carry each other’s burdens in Gal 6:2. Very often, the person going through the difficult time just could benefit from someone being there with them. We don’t have to have an answer, or try to fix their problems for them, often if we just walk with them through it, they will make it to the other side. One thing to remember is that everyone is facing some kind of battle. You may not know that your good friend is suffering because her mom has just been diagnosed with Alzeimers, or that someone has a struggling child, or a family lost their father who was a policeman in a gang shoot out. The world goes on for the rest of us, but that day, could be the worst day of their life. Be sensitive to what others are going through. Learn to think no only about yourself, but the many others around you who might have had a bad day, or a bad week, or even a bad year. You can help them, by standing with them, and carrying some of their load. It usually isn’t even that hard. Bring them a meal, take care of their kids, send some flowers, sit with them and most definitely pray for them. Thank God for the ones who have done that for you, and pass on the blessing!

Intro: Hi, this is Leah for my mom, Dorette Schaal with your dailyeword. This week we are talking about helping to lighten each others load, and becoming a cheerleader for our friends and loved ones. Gal 6:2 tells us to carry each other’s burdens, and Hebrews 3:13 tells us to encourage one another daily. Here are some encouraging words about enriching our relationships by cheering for each other, and helping carry each other’s burdens. We love it when others do that for us, so this week, let’s learn to cheer for somebody else.

Serve one another with a heart of love, it says in Gal 5:13. We have an awesome team of people at our church who cook meals for people who are sick, or new moms who have just had a baby, for anyone who is home bound for any reason. What is amazing is most of the time, they might be familiar with the person they are cooking for, but not always. They have a heart to serve out of need. What often happens at our church is when a new mom has her darling, precious baby, her Bible Study group will call our Hospitality Meal Coordinator and say, we’ve got this new mom covered. They have relationship with her, and they are more than willing to bring her meals, for as long as she needs them. They are not serving just out of need, they are serving out of love. Can you find some way to serve someone today? It is always good to find a need and fill it, but how about just doing something out of love. Your neighbors might enjoy a plate of cookies. Your husband might enjoy a back rub. The widow next door might have a lawn to mow. Why not make the cookies, rub his back, and mow her lawn! Love speaks loudly through action. You can serve one another out of a heart of love. That is imitating Jesus. It is a great way to live!