The Patience of Job

Patiently Waiting to Open His Gifts

Christmas 2010

Proverbs 19:11 NIV

"A man's wisdom gives him patience; it is to his glory to overlook an offense."

I had prepared a lesson on homonyms to present to my peers in the teacher training class. We were all about to enter high schools to student teach, so we practiced lessons on each other. I was the third person to teach a lesson, and so far, the others had done well. We had been compliant students and helped the one presenting by being model students.

As I took center stage in the classroom and began my lesson on homonyms--words that sound alike but are spelled differently--my classmates began to laugh. I'm not exactly sure why the word struck them as being so hysterical, but my lesson began to unravel at that point.

I plowed on through their snickers and comments and tried to stick to the lesson. I cajoled and pleaded with them to work with me on the handouts, which by now they had either balled up and were throwing around the room at each other or had folded neatly into paper airplanes and were flinging toward me.

Still undaunted, I continued to teach. They began to talk among themselves louder and made fun of me. I was confused by this attack by my friends. We had been so polite to the other presenters. This was a grade for me. My instructor was taking all of this in from the back of the room, and I was ill-prepared to know what to do with these Bohemians before me.

Dr. Cunningham finally put an end to my misery and addressed my peers. She talked to all of us about what had just transpired and how I should have handled the situation. She told me I had "the patience of Job" with this group, but I needed to act sooner to discipline them.

Twenty-eight years later, I still am one of the more patient teachers at school, but I have vastly improved on discipline. There is a time and place for patience, but discipline is necessary in a classroom for learning to occur.

In a classroom situation, wisdom gives me patience but also the ability to discern when to act on an offense.

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Lord, help me to gain wisdom and knowledge each day to patiently work with my students.