…be patient, bearing with one another in love (Eph. 4:2).

I’m a middle school teacher.

I know all about patience…particularly how to lose it. A middle school classroom is a microcosm of society at large. It’s filled with people who don’t listen, don’t follow the rules, hurt others for no apparent reason, make the same mistake over and over and over and over and over and respond to simple, thorough, articulate instructions with a blank look and, “I  don’t get it.”

The only way to avoid raining fire down upon them, the only way to endure their middle-schoolishness, is to love them.

And the only way to do that is to see them as Christ sees them–small and unsure and lonely and frightened and His.

And the only way to do that is by the power of the Holy Spirit.

So, Beloved, who will you need the Holy Spirit to help you be patient with today?

Wow…that’s kind of a lot of folks.

Don’t worry–he can handle it.

Happy Thursday, Beloved.