Patience vs Wrath

Patience vs Wrath

Day two of Deadly Sins and Heavenly Virtues bring us to Patience and Wrath. I must start off with that I can very safely say and say often that Patience is not a virtue I posses and unfortunately can identify with wrath a lot easier. It is something that I know I need to work harder on. 

     I found the definition of patience to be rather interesting. The definition is is the state of endurance under difficult circumstances, which can mean persevering in the face of delay or provocation without acting on annoyance/anger in a negative way; or exhibiting forbearance when under strain, especially when faced with longer-term difficulties. The word endurance stood out to me. It is not just to wait, patience, but to endure whatever is going on. From the smallest thing like waiting in a long line to waiting for answers from God. When we endure something it makes us stronger. In some way I viewed patience as a weak part of us. That we are tolerating something that we feel is not right. Instead of taking it, the need to speak up and express your unhappiness with the circumstances. Sometimes we should speak up but maybe there are just things going on that we just do not know or understand. Instead of acting quickly, we need to have the patience to wait and listen. I think this especially can be applied to us wanting answers from God. Maybe we are not ready for what we are asking. Maybe it is best we wait because what we are asking has not happened yet. As we have patience and wait we are gaining strength to handle what is going on and also what may be coming down the path. That word endurance has me looking at patience at a different angle. Not saying that I now have obtained that virtue of patience, but for the lack of a better way, I just have to be patient about getting patience. 

      Now wrath, I understand. We see many examples of the Wrath of God in the Old Testament, the plagues, the great flood, Sodom and Gmorrah.... but that covenant of wrath was shed when Jesus died for us all. Wrath of God is not the same as the wrath of man. Our wrath can be strong enough to create wars or personal wraths where we seek to destroy or hurt people either physically or emotionally because we feel we have been wronged. Wrath is a constant feeding of anger to the point where it far exceeds being upset to where you now want to act upon it. You feel justified by your actions and it can become irrational. We can be blinded by our wrath and we do not see things as the really are in the circumstance. I act quickly and do not let things sink in (hence lacking that virtue of patience) and when the dust settles there are other problems to deal with now. A lot of the time when the sin of wrath is in control, we do not stop until we feel that retribution has been given out. It does not have to be a physical act of wrath but a verbal wrath is just as damaging. Words can not be taken back and once said they are not forgotten. Wrath must be controlled and the only way it can be is with that virtue of patience. Patience can stop us from saying and doing the wrong thing. When we take the time to cool down and let the dust settle we can see more clearly and act with understanding. 

     Wrath may be a quick show of strength but true strength will come from patience. We can grow stronger as we are patience instead of losing strength when we act with wrath. That energy we have diminishes from us when we act with wrath. 

Until tomorrow, God Bless, and may you find strength as the virtue of patience grows with in you.