Patience

Makrothumia: forbearance, longsuffering, patience

Of all the fruits of the Spirit, this one may be our least favorite.

“Patience” nests in a pineapple for this design because it takes patience to grow pineapples. It takes around two years for a pineapple plant to grow enough to start bearing fruit, and then it only bears one fruit per season. That’s some patience. Imagine that the only way to enjoy pineapple was to plant one and wait two years. No grocery store checkout lines. No Walmart pickup. Two. Years.

I imagine that after taking care of a plant for two years to enjoy its fruit, you would savor the fruit all the more. You would celebrate its sweetness and invite others to share in the delight. I imagine that after seeing the plant grow and develop for two years, the fruit would feel like home.

This is the sweetness of patience.

But in a world where our attention spans last approximately six seconds, two years seems impossible. I’ve heard so many Christians joke (myself included) not to pray for patience because the Lord will test ya. Maybe we need to reframe our thoughts on patience. It is sweet. It is worthwhile. It is a great treasure that the Spirit gives us.

So maybe today, we are bold enough to see beyond instant gratification and move beyond our fears of suffering (or even inconvenience) and ask the Lord to strengthen our patience, for we know that the other side is sweet.

And it seems appropriate that this post was late. I made you wait for it

Blessings,

Hannah