Longsuffering

The Apostle Paul in writing to the Romans says ‘But if we hope for what we do not see, we wait for it with patience’ This is one of many references to the word patience, formerly known as long-suffering in the bible. Patience is found as one of the fruits of the Spirit. Scientist Walter Mischel did an experiment many years ago now known as the Marshmallow Test. In it you take a 4 year old child and you put a marshmallow in front of them and you say you can eat it now or if you can wait for 20 minutes, we will give you two marshmallows! This is a test of if they are able to suffer waiting 20 minutes for the prize. Forty years later Mischel has found that you can trace their performance aged 4  back to the 20 minutes without eating the marshmallow. to how well they are doing academically, or in business or in general life. This outcome came simply learning to control the gratification of instincts at an early age, they had in other words the ability to endure some suffering for the hope of brighter future. As patience is a fruit of the spirit, invite someone to take a closer look at Christ and his church.

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