A man’s wisdom gives him patience.
—Proverbs 19:11 NIV
People often ask me, “How can I learn contentment and stability?” One way, straight out of the Bible, is patience.
God wants us to use wisdom, and wisdom encourages patience. Wisdom silently tells us to wait a little while, until the emotions settle down, before you do or say something. Then check to see if you really believe it’s the right thing to do. Emotions urge us toward haste, telling us we must do something and do it right now! But godly wisdom tells us to be patient and wait until we have a clear picture of what we are to do and when we are to do it. I like to say it like this: Let emotions subside and then decide. We need to be able to step back from our situations and see them from God’s perspective. Then we need to make decisions based on what we know rather than what we feel.
Power Thought: I have the wisdom to develop patience and emotional stability.
