Patience

What is patience. You can be patience personified, but it's not very easy to achieve. Patience, meaning “calm perseverance,” is the noun form of the adjective patient, as in This job requires patience, and I am not a patient person. The word patient is also a noun referring to a person under medical care or treatment, and its plural form is patients, as in Dr. Lee is always friendly to her patients. The dictionary definitions of patience are quite similar, both in Hebrew and English: ability to wait quietly or face rejection or delay; ability to bear calmly and with self-control frustrating and upsetting situations. But the Hebrew word suggests the primal feeling one experiences when being patient: suffering. Sav•la•noot comes from ‘sevel,’ which means pain, suffering, agony (see a separate Hebrew Word of the Day).

In English, this lingual connotation is non-existent, or for the most, very vague. Unlike Hebrew, the English definition of ‘patience’ is believed to be borrowed from Old French, which in turn was borrowed from Latin. Only in Latin does it have the primal feeling we mentioned above: patientia – ‘suffering.’ The word ‘pathology’ is also related to the same feeling; it means ‘suffering’ and ‘disease’ in Greek.

Patience has another word in Hebrew which is also biblical: E•rech Ru•ach (literally, ‘long breath’). It appears once in the Bible as an important gift of the spirit:

“Better is the end of a thing than its beginning; and the patient in spirit is better than the proud in spirit” Ecclesiastes 7:8

On a lighter note, in the early years of the State of Israel, this was the first word new immigrants to Israel learned upon arrival when they experienced the snail-slow speed at which things were done. For example, up to the early 80’s the only phone company in Israel was the government. During those years, it took between 5 to 8 years to get a phone line from the day you placed the order. You surely needed much ‘sav•la•noot’ in Israel during this time. And a sense of humor was definitely a real plus…

Lord uZizamele loves (ngu Joint no.1) igadi yakhe ne Magazi family to no decimal point. Ngumkhonzazana othembekileyo usweetheart and he is cherised kwaMagazi. He has a great relationship no Mama wakhe uAunt Zoe and the greater family. Irelationship yakhe noThabo iya improver. This is my prayer Lord ukuba undiphe umonde nentumekelelo. Because if I fight this and win this on my own strenght I will still fail. He will be a grumpy and an unhappy man if I remove him from his family or his field. He will not benefit me if he is grumpy always unhappy and I will be confusing his familiar life pattern. So I pray undiphe patience with the hope that in the future he will prioritise me over his family. I pray for intumekelelo. Nam aze ayi accepte independence yam ne freedom. And let this be the only struggle but the greater and very many other crucial aspects of our relationship and our marriage must be very easy and without effort. Ukondla mna nomntana wam (+1). uthando. ububele. inceba. inkxaso. ubuhlobo. nobudlelwane. ubuncwane basebhedini. Ukuthembeka. imbeko. intlonipho. uhoyo. ubutshomi makandiphe bona without effort. In Jesus Amen.

May I not compete no Aunt Zoe. I pray naye amthande uMamawam nefamily yam.

• But if we hope for what we do not yet have, we wait for it patiently.Romans 8:25trusthope

• Let us not become weary in doing good, for at the proper time we will reap a harvest if we do not give up.Galatians 6:9righteousnessrewardharvest

• Better a patient person than a warrior, one with self-control than one who takes a city.Proverbs 16:32peaceself-control

• Be still before the Lord and wait patiently for him; do not fret when people succeed in their ways, when they carry out their wicked schemes.Psalm 37:7honestylife

• Wait for the Lord; be strong and take heart and wait for the Lord.Psalm 27:14trustcourage

• The Lord will fight for you; you need only to be still.

NDIYIXOLELA KUSEKWANGOKU LEYOKUXABISA IMAGAZI FAMILY KUKAZIZAMELE MAGAZI. AND I WILL NEVER MAKE HIM CHOOSE BETWEEN ME AND HIS FAMILY. I WILL BE SUPPORTIVE. UYOTHANJISWA NGUTHIXO USOMBAWO KULONTLIZIYO ENGEKABONI KAKUHLE AVULEKE AMEHLO OKU PRIORITISER UMFAZI. IN THE MEANTIME NDICELA UKUBA SUPPORTIVE DE NDINGAYIBONI NAM LE NYEWE.