Fruit of the Spirit

I'm currently in the 6th week of a 10 week women's bible study on the Fruit of the Spirit, Galatians 5:22-23:

²²But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, ²³gentleness and self-control. Against such things there is no law.

The first several weeks focused on
-how we have to be right with the Lord,
-how we need to obey the leading of the Holy Spirit,
-what true love really is,
-the experience of real joy in any circumstance,
-what peace really means (it's so much more than calm),
-and now we are learning about patience.

Without exaggeration, each week has been perfectly timed to coincide with feelings, emotions, and circumstances I've been going through.  This week is no different.

You remember my posting called Trust Walk a few weeks ago?  Well, all of the issues that led me to write that post still remain unresolved.  Right now, I want to take control and just be done with things.  I don't want to continue to wait.  I'm the kind of person that can spot a problem and can come up with ways to solve it.  Right now, though, I have to be patient, wait, and simply trust.  Yes, I said simply trust.

Isn't it funny how trust doesn't require that much from us, yet experience teaches us to make it one of the most difficult things to do and give?  Kids trust so easily--they trust you to feed them, clothe them, provide for them, keep them safe, keep them healthy, keep them alive.  And what have we really done to earn that trust besides love them and do our best?  Yet, God loves us even more and provides even more for us, and our best pales in comparison to His worst.  And we find it so difficult to trust Him...with anything, let alone everything.  This must be why the Word tells us to come to Him as little children.

Suffice it to say I continue to learn.  I learn more and more each day and I intend to keep on learning until my time is up.  Some of that learning requires stripping apart my ingrained habits and flawed beliefs in order to rebuild with a sound foundation.  That's what I'm doing now.

I place my elpis* hope in Jesus.  Here's to developing patience!

*Elpis is the Greek word for hope meaning "desire of some good with expectation of obtaining it" (from Living Beyond Yourself: Exploring the Fruit of the Spirit by Beth Moore).