Patience. Even the word causes frazzled parents to feel guilty or frustrated. It is one of those elusive qualities that you can’t will yourself to have. And as much as we try to learn to have patience, practice doesn’t make perfect. So if we can’t make ourselves be more patient, or work hard at learning to be patient, how do we capture this needed yet hard-to-find character trait? By leaning on God. Just like we cannot force an apple tree to produce apples or an orange tree to grow peaches, we cannot force the fruit of the Spirit into our lives. We must lean on God and let Him fill us. While we cannot make ourselves more patient, we can practice the discipline of asking God for help before we are in the midst of our craziness. Start your day with a simple prayer asking for His patience in whatever the day might bring. He is faithful and will show up.

Ask your kids how they feel when they are waiting in line at Disneyland or Sea World? Ask them if they get anxious or frustrated at how long they have to wait sometimes. Talk about that normal feeling and how God wants us to respond. Connect the dots with them that even though we all feel like that sometimes, it shouldn’t affect how we treat other people.