Prayer for Patience is Important to Your Marriage

If we hope for what we do not yet have, we wait for it patiently.
Romans 8:25

A man and woman spotted each other on the morning New York-to-Washington air shuttle. Sparks flew, but no words were exchanged, even as they stood together in the taxi line at Washington National.

She got in a cab, looked back, and saw him running after her. She begged the cabbie to stop, but he kept going.

In desperation, she scrawled her phone number on a piece of paper and pressed it against the back window. But she knew the man was too far away to read it.

So she went to her meeting. But she couldn’t stop thinking about him. She eventually feigned illness and returned to the airport to wait for him to catch the shuttle back to New York.

She waited all day and got on the 9 P.M. flight alone.

In New York, dejected, she stepped into the gate area—and he was there.

“What took you so long?” he asked. “I’ve been waiting all day.”

According to Dini Von Mueffling in her book, The 50 Most Romantic Things Ever Done, the couple eventually married and had two children.

Whether this is an urban myth or a true story, it reveals the sage advice of the pithy proverb: Good things come to those that wait. And they do.

Eugene Peterson’s paraphrase of Romans 8:22-25 resonates with Nouwen: “Waiting does not diminish us, any more than waiting diminishes a pregnant mother. We are enlarged in the waiting” (The Message).

Of course, few of us enjoy waiting. We tend to be impatient and restless. Waiting seems like a waste of time. Yet when we wait we often reap a reward.

So what are the two of you waiting for?

Chances are you know the answer to this question immediately. Maybe it’s a job promotion or a raise in salary. Maybe the slow grief of a lost loved one to dissipate. Perhaps it’s an upcoming vacation or a new life phase, like enjoying an empty nest. Or maybe it’s the arrival of a new baby.

Most of us, most of the time are waiting for something. And that’s why a prayer for patience is always in order. Have you asked God to give you this gift in your marriage lately?