Article December 11, 1978 Issue

We need never lose patience

STIG KIÆR CHRISTIANSEN

Many believe that patience is merely a desirable human quality one has to a greater or lesser degree—or perhaps not at all. But Christian Science shows that patience is a God-derived quality. Mrs. Eddy writes in Science and Health, "In patient obedience to a patient God, let us labor to dissolve with the universal solvent of Love the adamant of error,—self-will, self-justification, and self-love,—which wars against spirituality and is the law of sin and death."^{Science and Health, p. 242;}

God is wholly good, and He has created all that truly exists. Consequently, all reality is good. In other words, He knows only good. How, then, can we think of God as being patient?

An answer to this might be that God's patience is expressed in His infinite goodness, in His love for His creation. He not only loves; He is Love itself, steadfast, changeless, infinite. Mortals sometimes have to admit with Paul that they do wrong things they really don't want to do while they omit the good things they would have liked to do. To them God's changeless and constant love appears in a most comforting and encouraging way—as if it were that particular human attitude, patience.

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