This thought was first published on 4th August 2021
Romans 5:4
“Perseverance, character, and character, hope.”
Today I finished the ironing! It had started as a small pile, just a few clothes. “Not worth getting the ironing board out for”, I thought. A few more were added, but I never felt like doing it. “It will be better to wait until I feel like doing it”, I thought. But the pile of ironing steadily grew larger, accusing me every time I walked past it.
Finally, I decided I could just iron a few items, no need to do it all in one go. I was pleased with myself as I finally got going. But half an hour in, I began to think about giving up. I then told myself the de-ionised water was probably going to run out soon and then I would have to stop, so I carried on. But, the water failed to run out and I managed to keep going, until I finally completed the job, to my great relief!
I’m sure we can all recognise ourselves in this scenario – though for you it may be something else other than ironing.
We procrastinate while the task is small, only to have a bigger task on our hands when we finally tackle it. And then it’s harder to follow through and get it done. When we can manage to persevere until the end, then of course there is a great sense of satisfaction. Though I found it was tinged with regret that I had procrastinated in the first place.
“Perseverance produces character and character, hope”, Paul writes. He’s writing about persevering with faith in Jesus through suffering. It’s important to practice building perseverance in the small tasks of life. Then when bigger events come our way, we will find we’ve built up some resilience because we’ve already been working on our perseverance. Everyday life is the Holy Spirit’s training ground – nothing is wasted if we look upon our lives from this perspective.
Prayer: Help me Lord, to recognise opportunities in the everyday tasks of life to practice perseverance and build a stronger character. Amen