The Need to be Longsuffering February 20, 2007
Posted by Erin in : Scripture Meditation , trackbackThis morning my reading plan had me in Exodus 3 for one of my chapters. As I sat and read of Moses off in the desert and encountering the burning bush, I was meditating on how patient God is with us in our humanity. I was thinking of some of the other words to describe God’s patience and I thought of the word “longsuffering.” It is often used in Scripture to describe God’s attitude toward us. It is not a word I had thought about much before, so I went and looked it up online in a Bible dictionary (the internet is such a great resource!). The definition I found said “self-restraint in the face of provocation”.
Upon reading this one of my first thoughts was how much I need longsuffering as a parent. We have an almost three-year-old who is consistently looking to provoke us. She is always looking to stretch the limits. For example, last night as we were getting ready for bed, and after she had been disciplined for saying “no” to me, I was leaving the room, and she whispered a quiet “no”–just to see either if I could hear it or if that would be an acceptable form of “no”. She knows very well she is not to say “no” to Mommy when I have told her something, but as a sinful child she is often pushing the limits to see what will provoke us as parents.
For my discipline to be loving and effective, I need to be longsuffering. God bears with us as we often provoke Him right to His face. We are going to be dealing with years of provocation as parents, and my prayer is now for longsuffering in the midst of it. I want to be self-restrained, so that I do not discipline Abby in anger or pride when she disrespects me, but in humility and self-restraint in order to faithfully bring her back under the blessing of God.
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