Bobby had a toy horse he liked to play with. It looked a lot like a real horse except that it was quite a bit smaller. The horse had a long tail that Bobby could comb. It even had a saddle he could take off and put back on again.
Bobby wanted a stall to keep his horse in. His daddy said, “Since you are nearly five, I think you could build a stall yourself.” Bobby’s daddy explained his idea. “I have a hammer that is about your size and some nails, and here are some pieces of wood that you can use.”
Bobby was very excited and wanted to get started right away. Daddy said, “Let’s wait until tomorrow when I have a day off work. I think we can find a place to work in the backyard. Is that all right with you, son?”
“All right!” said Bobby.
Waiting one day wasn’t very long, but even so, it was going to take some patience on the part of a five-year-old to wait even one day. Do you children know what the word “patience” means? You’ve probably heard your parents say to you, “Just be patient,” when you kept asking for something again and again. Patience means to wait for something without fussing or complaining. Bobby could have stomped off and said he didn’t want to wait until tomorrow. That would not have been pleasing to the Lord Jesus or his parents. Instead, Bobby used patience to wait one day. However, like all of us, there were still more lessons for him to learn in patience.
The next day when Daddy was home, he and Bobby got everything together that Bobby was going to need to build the stall. There were three boards for the walls and a thick piece of wood for the floor. Bobby held the hammer while Daddy held the boards together. Bobby gave the board a mighty WHACK! Not only did he miss the nail completely, but the two pieces of wood broke and the hammer hit his finger! Oh, my! Poor Bobby went away, crying.
Thankfully, Bobby was more frightened than hurt. After everything calmed down, Daddy told Bobby, “Thank the Lord you weren’t hurt badly. How about if we try again, but I’ll have to get more wood first.” Another lesson in patience for Bobby. But he agreed that he wanted to try again after his daddy got more wood.
“Good boy!” Then his daddy said, “In the meanwhile, here’s a thick board. Why don’t you practice hammering before we work on the stall another day.”
So Bobby practiced the next day while Daddy was at work. Mother helped him hold the nail in place with one hand and hit it with the hammer in his other hand. In fact, she started several nails, so they were ready for Bobby to pound in. Soon he could do it all by himself. There was a lot of noisy pounding going on in that backyard.
Soon the time came when Daddy was home with more wood to help Bobby start again. Daddy held the pieces together while Bobby happily pounded the nails in. This time there were no hammered fingers. When they finished, they set the stall up, and Bobby was quite pleased as he put his toy horse into its stall. Everyone was happy, especially Bobby, because he learned to do things the right way, and he had learned several lessons in patience along the way.
Patience is a hard lesson to learn, even for grown-ups. Sometimes we pray for certain things, and we don’t get an answer right away. But we know the Lord Jesus answers all our prayers. Sometimes His answer is “Yes,” sometimes it is “No,” and sometimes He says, “Wait.” He knows what is good and best for each one of us. He tells us to “rest in the Lord, and wait patiently for Him” (Psalm 37:77Rest in the Lord, and wait patiently for him: fret not thyself because of him who prospereth in his way, because of the man who bringeth wicked devices to pass. (Psalm 37:7)). And while we wait for His answer, He tells us to “follow after righteousness, godliness, faith, love, patience, meekness” (1 Timothy 6:1111But thou, O man of God, flee these things; and follow after righteousness, godliness, faith, love, patience, meekness. (1 Timothy 6:11)). This is what will please the Lord Jesus, and both children and grown-ups need to learn to do this.
ML-05/10/2009