My daughter Pat spends unending minutes on the phone with me helping me when I have a computer problem.  Most of it saying, "Hush, hush.  Just listen to me while I explain this."  I spend most of the time saying, "I feel so bad taking all of your time helping me with this."

To which she always replies, "I don't mind.  I'm glad to help you."  She has the patience of Job.  She is also an excellent teacher--after almost forty years in the public education field she knows where to start explaining a problem.  Step one, step two...

When God assigned "gifts" to people, I was not assigned patience.  Some people have varying degrees of this gift.  I scored a zero.  Maybe my score was in the negative numbers.  Pat said, "Aren't you glad you and I have different personalities.  What if I was like you!!"

To which I replied, "God gave you to me because I needed someone with patience.  She must have inherited it from Ken.  He had the same gift.

I once told Ken's mom that I was praying for patience and she gasped.  "Oh, no!" she said.  "Don't ever do that."  I was shocked and asked her why.  

She then quoted Romans 5:3-4 "...we glory in tribulations also: knowing that tribulation worketh patience and patience, experience; and experience, hope..."  She added, "When you pray for patience, you get tribulation.  Because tribulation is where patience comes from.  You learn patience from trials."

I've had plenty of tribulations.   My score isn't going up on the patience scale.  I'm obviously a slow learner.