The reason Seb could stand it was he had an astounding love for young people and always looked at their heart and past their actions, and he was overflowing with the fruit of the Spirit.
You can’t demonstrate what you haven’t got. You can’t conjure up godliness, nor can you choose to have more patience. You have the amount you have. Let’s not tell our young people to have more fruit of the Spirit - let’s tell them to have more of Jesus. Patience (and the other fruits) are the happy by-products of being full of Jesus. Remember the cactus from last month? It’s like that: water it, feed it, nurture it, sing to it… and it will grow and bear fruit. Nurture your relationship with Jesus and you will bear fruit.
Visual aid
Place a glass on a tray. Ask your mentee to fill up the glass with water from a jug. Explain that the glass represents them. The water represents what they can offer the people around them.
Ask them to pour some of the water out. Every time they give, they use up some of that God-given resource and they end up needing refilling.
Ask them to fill the glass again, and to keep pouring as it overflows. Explain that we need to be refilled constantly with the Holy Spirit so that we can give to others out of the overflow of what he gives us - that way we are never lacking ourselves and always have more to give.
When my kids were small I coined the phrase: “Patience is waiting without moaning.” In the context of it being a characteristic of godliness, what does patience mean to you or your mentee? Think about these two areas:
- Things you are waiting for from God, eg for him to change things in you.
- People and relationships that you need patience for.
Discuss:
- What do you need patience for: to listen better while people speak? For when people don’t ‘get’ things fast enough? To be slower to get angry?
- Can you exercise what patience you have?
- How do you cultivate that close relationship with God?
- How do you give and serve out of the overflow of what God pours into you?
