Read an Excerpt

Patience

Zondervan

Chapter One

Proverbs

Stop it!"

"No!"

"You are going to break Dad's computer!"

"Its my turn!"

The game of computer Monopoly comes to an abrupt halt. My youngest son stomps out of the study and runs upstairs to his room. My two older sons walk away, exasperated. So much for a quiet Sunday afternoon.

With a little more patience the game could have gone on. But the boys were tired, and it was a hot afternoon. Patience on such days is not in great supply.

For most of us, more is at stake during frustrating times than a children's game. Yet it is in the trying times, when we seem least inclined to be patient, that we need it the most. We can be encouraged to grow in patience if we look at its benefits in the book of Proverbs.

Warming Up

1. Take a patience inventory. At what times and in what circumstances do you tend to be impatient?

Digging In

2. Read the five proverbs listed on page 10. How would you summarize the qualities of a patient person?

3. What contrasts are drawn between a patient and impatient person?

4. Look at Proverbs 15:18. How does patience/impatience affect our relationships with others?

How have you seen patience/impatience affect relationships in your life?

5. Read Proverbs 16:32. Why do you think a patient person is better than a warrior or one who takes a city?

6. How could patience be a great asset in your (choose one) workplace, classroom, home?

7. Read Proverbs 14:29 and 19:11. How does patience-or the lack of it-reveal whether a person is wise or foolish?

8. Think of a person you know who is very patient. In what other ways does that person seem wise?

9. Look at Proverbs 15:18 and 25:15. How does patience or impatience affect the impact of our speech?

(Continues...)

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Excerpted from Patience by Stephen Eyre Copyright © 2001 by Zondervan. Excerpted by permission.
All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.
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