I was a public school teacher for eleven years. If there is any career that can test your patience to its absolute brink, being an educator will have you second-guessing your profession often. For ten of those years, I taught 5th Grade (10 and 11 year olds). For my final year as a teacher, I taught high school. And let me tell you. I am extremely grateful for all the Lord taught me while teaching 5th graders because my patience was tested in unique ways while teaching high schoolers.
What tests your patience? Is it your roommates leaving their dirty dishes in the sink? Your kids not listening to you? Slow drivers in front of you when you’re in a hurry? All of the above? I believe sin shows itself most clearly when our patience meter is falling closer and closer to zero. Impatience leads to outbursts, which leads to regret. For me, impatience draws me to the Lord. In those moments, I am in desperate need of His help.
Looking to the Lord in Leadership
In Numbers 12:3, we read about a man named Moses who “was very humble, more so than any man on the face of the earth.” Another way we can read the word “humble” is “gentle.” If you’ve ever read the stories about Moses in the Bible, he did a lot of courageous things. He stood up to powerful rulers, watched God part the Red Sea before the Israelites, and countless other miracles that occurred through him by the power of God.
Moses’ gentle leadership is in contrast to how we often view the leadership of those in charge in modern times. It can seem like the loudest, strongest, wealthiest, and most educated people are the ones who hold positions of power, and being gentle is far from what makes a strong leader.
But that’s not how God views strong leadership. The Bible highlights leaders like Moses, Abraham, David, Peter, Paul, and of course Jesus. Through these examples, we see how we should and should not react when in tough situations. Were these leaders in the faith apart from Jesus perfect? Not at all. But they allowed God to teach and use them to help generations of believers see what true gentleness looks like. Sometimes they failed, and sometimes they succeeded. But through it all, their hearts continued to look to the Lord as the only One who could rescue them.
Seeking the Lord’s Heart
There were many times where my patience grew very thin with some of my students. I struggled to connect with them. I didn’t look forward to having them in my class. Most of the time they were the source of my lack of gentleness. But around year five, God really pressed it on my heart to pray for those students who frustrated me. I began to ask the Lord, “Father, how can I connect with them? What can I do to help foster a relationship to the point where I will look forward to seeing them every day?” And you know what the Lord did? He created opportunities to learn more about them, their home life, and their likes/dislikes. Soon they became the students I was most sad to say goodbye to at the end of the year. It was all because I humbled myself to ask the Lord for His help. He loved those kids, and I wanted to love them, too.
Who or what unsteadies your gentleness? Have you prayed for the Lord to help your heart? Have you taken the time to step back and see life from a different perspective? I want to challenge you to pray through the areas of your life where you feel most impatient and see what the Lord does with your act of humility.
