Most of us will admit that patience is not one of our virtues. More times than we'd like to admit, we are like the person who prayed, "God give me patience, and give it to me now!"

Sometimes our impatience is most evident when It comes to those who have just entered the family of God. We often want new believers to be in five days at a point it took us five years to achieve. Should they immediately not hunger for the Word, spend time in prayer, desire fellowship with believers, clean up their language, and renounce their bad habits, we can become terribly impatient with them. Our impatience is sometimes seen in the way we become judgmental towards them, critical of their actions, and sometimes untrusting of their sincerity.

The Gentleness Needed By New Believers

In one word, what is needed is gentleness—the gentleness that Paul the apostle compares to a nursing mother cherishing her own children. Have you ever thought of the fits we may have put our nursing mother through—infant illnesses for which time and patience were the only cures, self-centered behavior, unreasonable demands, midnight feedings, perpetual care, and dirty diapers?

That kind of care and concern, patience and perseverance, time and toil is what it often takes to see new Christians grow. That's especially true in our day when those coming to Christ are beset with more past sins and problems and fewer moral standards than ever before.

The Relationship Needed By New Believers

A lifeguard was once asked how he would teach a girl to swim. He took thirty minutes to explain in painstaking detail how he would do it in a way that applauded his patience.

He was then asked, "But suppose that girl was your little sister." He remarked, "Oh, in that case, I'd just take her to the edge and push her in."

Once non-Christians come to Christ by faith, we cannot show them how to swim the Christian life by standing on the edge and saying, "Lots of luck!" We must jump in with them and help them through those initial struggles and temptations.

Dr. R. Larry Moyer, 31 Days with the Master Fisherman, Kregel Publications