With all lowliness and meekness, with longsuffering, forbearing one another in love; Endeavouring to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace. — Ephesians 4:2-3
It does not take you long after leaving your house every day to have an experience in this world. Perhaps it is on the drive to work, where someone is driving faster than everyone else, demanding to get around them all. Or perhaps it is at the restaurant, where someone is yelling at the staff member because their order was not right. It could even be on vacation, where people are frustrated because they are in a hurry and everyone else is in their way.
The experience that I am referring to is a lack of patience. Patience is something that we seem to struggle with in our world today. No one wants to wait on anything. We have 2-hour delivery service and 1-hour store pickups and even that is not fast enough. We want everything immediately.
While the world around us may push us to our limits, one of the things a Christian should want to show to others is patience. In multiple areas of Scripture, including Ephesians 4, we are told that longsuffering, or patience, is something that Christians should display. It is the concept that no matter what is happening in our world, we should have patience and understanding because God showed us patience.
So while it may be easy to start joining into the same actions as this world, take a step back and look at things from a different perspective. Remember the patience that you were shown and take a moment to show patience to others. While we may be in this world for a short time, we can show others that we are not the same. We can show them that we are different, which shows them Christ living in us.