Living With Imperfect People

I read this quote today from humorist Dave Barry who said, "A perfect parent is a person with excellent child-rearing theories and no actual children." There's lots of wisdom and truth in that, not just about raising kids but about any aspect of life.

We are all experts on perfection until we have to actually be engaged in the process. That's where the rub comes in, isn't it? Everything would be perfect if it weren't for people. Living with imperfect people requires lots of patience and forgiveness. It's always very easy to think about how much patience I must have with others until I stop to realize I also am an imperfect people myself and that someone else is having to extend patience and forgiveness toward me.

Patience means putting up with me when you would rather lose your temper; it means forgiving me when you would rather hold a grudge. Patience puts the long in long-suffering. Patience is love in action because "love is patient" (I Corinthians 13:4 NIV).

Even when your complaints about someone else are justified, patience pushes you toward forgiving and forgetting the hurt: " a man's wisdom gives him patience; it is to his glory to overlook an offense" (Proverbs 19:11 NIV).

Being patient will try your patience but we become stronger when we learn to love imperfect people. Patience frees us to develop godly diversity in our relationships, where we no longer require everyone to act and look and think the same way we do.