Quotes About Patience

a war maxim attributed to Napoleon: Never interrupt your enemy when he is making a mistake.

A Ford Terino jerked to a stop, inches from her knees. Before the driver could honk, Jimena tapped the hood of the car. The man glanced up and her eyes warned him, You're out of your neighborhood. He understood and settled back patiently as if it were normal to stop at a green light in Los Angeles. Once Jimena had crossed the street, the car screeched away.

He was thinking that maybe love was like starting a fire with two sticks. You've always heard that it's possible, but how likely is it?

I know I'm still young and there's a lot of time for things to happen, but sometimes I think there is something about me that's wrong, that I'm not the kind of person anyone can fall in love with, and that I'll just always be alone. But I think if I knew someone was going to fall in love with me when I'm fifty-three or something, I think I could wait. Maybe. If I knew it would at least happen.

Like a tree, a woman can't carry the weight of two seasons simultaneously. In the violent struggle of trying, she'll miss every bit of joy each season promises to bring.

If you desire to please God with the decision you make and afterward it proves to be a mistake, it's an error not an end.

My heart struggles to make peace between God's ability to change hard things and His apparent decision not to change them for me.

Too many people think that finding the reason God placed us here on earth will come in one assignment with a big title and complete job description. I believe that discovering our purpose will unfold slowly, like a seed planted deep in the ground.

The tweaking of us by God in the quiet is the saving of us in public.

Yes, Lord. I want Your patience to invade my desire to fly off the handle." "Yes, Lord. I want Your perspective to keep my emotions in check." "Yes, Lord. I want Your provision so things don't seem so overwhelming." "Yes, Lord. I want Your courage to do what I feel You calling me to do." "Yes, Lord. I want and need more of You in every moment.

I expect a perfection in me and a perfection in others that not even God Himself expects. If God is patient with the process, why can't I be?

The olive tree is such a beautiful reminder that this isn't how it's going to be forever. On the other side of the harsh wind is fruit. On the other side of the process of being broken and waiting is a useful heart free of bitterness. On the other side of being pressed and crushed is oil . . . the most valuable part of me set free to emerge.

I have to trust that first comes the dust, and then comes the making of something even better with us. God isn't ever going to forsake you, but He will go to great lengths to remake you. What if disappointment is really the exact appointment your soul needs to radically encounter God?

I don't know all the details entangled in this issue. But You know all. Therefore, You, God, are the only One who can handle all. There are a lot of things my flesh is tempted to seek—fairness, my right to be right, proof of her wrongdoing, to make her see things from my vantage point—but at this point, the only thing healthy for me to seek is You. You alone. I'm going to be obedient to You and let You handle everything else.

Though we may get our hearts broken from the effects of sin in this in-between time, God's goodness will eventually set the world right.

Remember that everything that happens to you is first filtered through God's hand. Interruptions can become opportunities. What you might see as distractions God might see as divine appointments. Things may happen that seem so haphazard and distracting to our agenda, but with a fresh dose of perspective, they can turn into precious moments.

God loves me too much to answer my prayers at any other time than the right time and in any other way than the right way.

He waits every day with every answer we need, every comfort we crave, every affection we're desperate for, while we look everywhere else but at Him.

How it must break His heart when we walk around so desperate for a love He waits to give us each and every day.

My life certainly didn't change overnight. I experienced a waiting period, a time of growth, development, and perseverance as God prepared me. Lessons on patience, trust, surrender, and learning to take hold all preceded my stepping out. But even in this seemingly unimportant time of pruning and trials, God was preparing me for the next step.

I know I must walk through God's process before I see His fulfilled promise.

I admit that so often I have held tightly to my own plans and to the outcomes that I think should come to pass. But I know the story You're writing for me is so much better than any story I could ever write for myself. Help me to cling to this truth when my circumstances are uncertain and unpredictable. I declare my trust in You above it all. In Jesus' name, amen.

When we decrease, God has room to make big things happen.

We all desperately want something that we see the Lord giving to other women. We see Him blessing them in the very areas He's withholding from us. And while these other women may not be obnoxious like Peninnah in their reminders of their blessing and our lack, it's increasingly painful each time we see a reminder. We look at them, and we feel set aside.