Monday, 22 December 2014

Patience, kindness, goodness and the rest of the fruit



I really love my job, although it’s a field that I never thought I would pursue, I have come to love it and I would always want to work in this field for the rest of my life. One of the reasons why I love my job is because every day I meet different people with different needs all looking for a solution or at least some guidance to get through some situation. I always try to help them out and although sometimes I never have a solution to their problems, I listen and direct them to someone or something that will help. It is a very nice job because I get to interact with many people, listen, smile, laugh and even encourage. It gives me so much joy and many times I leave work in the evening with a great feeling of satisfaction and never tired. 

However, it can be difficult sometime because I don’t always meet people with nice personalities. Sometimes I meet rude, mean or even abusive people. In these moments, it can be difficult because my job requires that I still remain nice. At times I want to get mad and even give a rude response but I have no choice but to be quiet, listen and try to empathize.  You see, being nice to those people who are nice to us is never a problem. However, being nice and kind to those people who are rude to us is very difficult. Sometimes I have found myself walking out on a person who gets rude or starts to quarrel because it is not in me to be quarrel. Not that I can’t be rude or quarrel, it’s just that I sound horrible when I get mad. However, because I have desired to be more like Christ, He has helped me to realize that I need not to be rude but be kind.

I would be a liar if I said that this process has been easy. However, I am grateful to God and His word. I have learnt that He requires of us to be kind because it is the right thing to do. He requires us to be filled with goodness and be patience because this way we are able to win many people to Him. Galatians 5:22 says that the fruit of the spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness,  goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self control. God expects us to live by the spirit which means that we have to have this fruit.  It can be hard to be all these when the world around us is the opposite. When customers are rude, colleagues are plotting evil; the bosses do not want to listen, friends take advantage of our kindness and many other challenges.

I have read books talking about how love must be tough and how love and respect must be two way but God has been teaching me that we don’t just love only those who can love us. The bible talks of following the example of Jesus who was oppressed and afflicted yet he did not open his mouth, he was led like a lamb to the slaughter and as a sheep before her shearers is silent, so he did not open his mouth (Isaiah 53:7), to love; which requires of us to be patient even with those who are unkind. To forgiving those who walk over us or even take advantage of us and so many other mean acts.

Patience, kindness, goodness and the above are not easy. However, I have been learning that to be patience it requires us to do nothing. If you want to walk in patience you just do nothing even when you are hurt, don’t even talk about the person who hurts you with others, that can turn into gossip. Instead, you should take time and pray. To be kind requires us that instead of being rude or mean when someone is mean, we should take this opportunity to do good to them. That is, to overcome evil with good. Goodness requires us to just be nice at all times. This is where gentleness and self control comes in. we ought to have self control at all times because at times, our flesh will want to repay evil with evil. Only self control will help us overcome the flesh and that way we will be gentle and kind. When we do this, joy will never depart from our hearts. However, let’s remember that we can’t achieve this on our own. We can only achieve it through having a constant walk with God, that is like having an intimate relationship with God which requires us to take time to be with Him, listen to him, read his word, worship him and pray.

God bless you and keep growing in Him.

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