As God's chosen people, holy and dearly loved, clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience. Colossians 312 Frisbee Rasp grew up on a farm in eastern Nebraska. In May of 1888, at the age of 17, Frisby enrolled in the Omaha business college and for the first time in his life found himself alone in the big city. He arrived in Omaha on May 5 and was immediately overwhelmed by enormous three story stone buildings, the constant sounds of construction, and masses of people everywhere he went. On May 7, Frisbee wrote a letter to his family and stated, I haven't got any letters from you yet, and expressed hope that he would receive one the next day because he was feeling pretty lonely and was already homesick. Two days later, Frisby wrote another letter to his folks. I haven't heard from you yet, he said, so you must be dead. I ain't a going to mail this until I do. Two more days passed before he received letters from home. Now we have heard that it is said that patience is a virtue. It is listed as one of the characteristics of the fruit of the spirit with which the Christian is to be clothed. But for a lonely, homesick 17 year old Frisbee Rasp, patience was clearly not his strong suit. It is lacking in many of us as well. For many reasons, we are often guilty of being impatient. Stop lights, long lines, paperwork and a myriad of other things have us chomping at the bit and at times ranting and raving because we are so annoying at having to wait for what we feel is much too long a time to get anywhere, to get anything, or to get anything done. We have become a people who crave instant gratification. We are like one senior who jokingly wrote in her high school yearbook, I want what I want when I want it. The thing we must remember is that patience is not optional for the Christian. In fact, the exercise of patience is an exercise in genuine Christianity. We are to be patient in life, especially with each other, because God is patient with us. Patience is argued arguably one of the most difficult characteristics to build into our lives, probably because we are too self centered. But in the christian life, patience becomes a test of authenticity because it is so necessary in building a godly marriage, a godly home, a christlike church and Christ honoring friendships.

This has been your thought for the day with Steve Burkham, pastor of Community Christian Church in Stockton, California. If you have questions or comments for Pastor Steve, please send them to dailythoughtspodcastmail.com. Have a great day and we hope you'll join us tomorrow as Pastor Steve opens God's word to bring us another thought for the day.