Fruit Loops - Part 5 - Patience

"But the Holy Spirit produces this kind of fruit in our lives: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. There is no law against these things!"
Galatians 5:22-23 NLT


The first words that broke the silence of slumber at our house, this morning was, "I don't hear the sump pump running." Robin had cause for concern. During a hard rain and, especially, a hard rain coupled with a large snow-melt, if the sump pump in the corner of our basement stops working, our basement can quickly become a murky swimming pool.

I bolted down the stairs, still groggy from the 7 hour drive home from a weekend conference on the east coast. Sure enough, the massive amount of water that was coursing through our drains had overloaded our pump.

I quickly got dressed, jumped into the van and went to our local home improvement store to buy a new pump. On arriving home I found Robin and our two oldest boys bailing water into buckets, coolers and anything else that they could find that would hold water. Despite their efforts, water was coming in through the base of the walls - claiming the carpeting in 2 of the boy's rooms.

I was rushing to assemble the new pump into our drain system while, in shear frustration, Robin kept me informed of the increasing water damage.

Needless to say we were not being as patient with each other as we could have been. Robin would say, "It's (the water) heading for Alex's room!" Or, something similar to that effect. To which I would repeatedly and sharply answer, "We're all working as fast as we can!"

We share in our conferences that patience is developed through enduring trials and tests. A flooding basement would certainly be considered a trial; however, I don't know that Robin and I scored very well in our mastery of it.

"Be completely humble and gentle; be patient, bearing with one another in love."
Eph 4:2 NIV

We also share that we never fully arrive at mastering how we think, speak and act toward our spouse and that it is an ongoing and intentional process.

Yeah, well, Robin and I need to get back to work on our basement - and on our patience...


For Marriages,

Dave & Robin