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Senior vice-presidents and portfolio managers of Kopp Investment Advisors, when asked about their advice for investing in high-tech stocks, responded with the same advice nearly all investment advisors would give: "While we believe that investing in technology stocks provides investors with enormous upside potential, we caution that the inherent volatility requires investors to have longer investment time horizons--and stronger stomachs--in order to weather the dramatic ups and downs that are typical for stocks in this group . . .
"Think long-term ... and don't panic.
"Anyone who invests in technology stocks should have an investment horizon of at least five years . . . He/she also should be firmly committed to the stocks being purchased."
The same can be said about the situation of believers, as we attempt to live out our faith and remain committed to Christ in the face of constant temptations, setbacks, struggles, tears, trials... The only advice that will truly sustain us is: Think Long-Term! And don't panic! Be firmly committed to that in which you've placed your stock.
Source: Source: Bottom Line/Personal, 10/15/95
Topics/Tags: Patience
"Losing Patience With Patients"
In England, doctors call them "heart-sink" patients ... because the sight of their name on the appointment schedule causes the physician's heart to sink! You know the type: They're the patients who repeatedly complain about unexplained and undiagnosable pains and ailments, the patients who frustrate physicians with their continual demands and ambiguous complaints. Doctors say, "You can never tell whether such a patient is simply a hypochondriac, making up illnesses in his head; or whether he's got some genuinely serious condition that demands extensive scrutiny."
Do you have a "heart-sink" person in your life, an individual who demands a huge amount of your time because he or she always "needs" you to listen to a problem, work through a crisis, or provide a shoulder for crying upon? Perhaps you're tempted to dodge that person, or even to be downright rude to him or her, in an attempt to redeem some of your precious time for yourself.
Yet, did you know that these so-called "heart-sink" persons are exactly the folks to whom we as Christians are called to minister? Certainly, they're the ones with whom Jesus spent his precious time: the crazed demoniac; the woman at the well; the thief on the cross; even his own hard-to- teach disciples. Are you willing to spend your "precious" time ministering to those who are most "precious" in His sight?
Matthew 25:40: "'Truly I tell you, just as you did it to one of the least of these who are members of my family, you did it to me.'"
Source: Science News, 10/25/97, p. 264.
Topics/Tags: Poor, duty to; Patience; Sacrifice
"Learn these two things: Never be discouraged because good things get on so slowly here, and never fail daily to do that good which lies next to your hand. Do not be in a hurry, but be diligent. Enter into the sublime patience of the Lord. Be charitable in view of it. God can afford to wait; why can not we, since we have Him to fall back upon? Let patience have her perfect work and bring forth her celestial fruits. Trust to God to weave your little thread into a web, though the patterns show it not yet."
— GEORGE MACDONALD.
Source: SAGE Digital Library
Audubon, the great ornithologist, with gun and pencil, went through the forests of America to bring down and to sketch the beautiful birds. It is said that, after years of toil and exposure completed his manuscript, and put it in a trunk in Philadelphia for a few days of recreation and rest, and came back and found that the rats had utterly destroyed the manuscript.
But, without any discomposure and without any fret or bad temper, he again picked up his gun and pencil, and visited again all the great forests of America, and reproduced his immortal work.
"And yet there are people with the ten-thousandth part of that loss who are utterly unreconcilable, who at the loss of a pencil or an article of raiment will blow as long and sharp as a northeast storm.". — TALMAGE.
A recent bestseller is titled, "Don't Sweat the Small Stuff (and it's ALL Small Stuff!)." Is your life a wreck because the "little things" have destroyed your attitude and outlook?
Source: SAGE Digital Library
Topics/Tags: Patience; Peace; Anger; Perspective
"I was at Folgarelli's the other day, with my basket of groceries on the counter by the cash register. The clerk had swiped my credit card through the credit-card gadget. Abruptly, an anxious, overbearing woman demanded of the clerk: 'I am in a hurry, and I only have these few things, take me first.' She did not look at me or offer an apology or give a compelling reason why my transaction should be interrupted. She did not ask if I minded, she simply commandeered the clerk. I said nothing.
"As I pulled away from the store, the woman's car was just ahead of mine. She had saved TEN SECONDS."
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Does it REALLY cost us that much to be kind and patient?
Source: Bradley Will, "Proper 17, Year C, 8/30/1998." In "Sermonshop Sermons" emailing list.
Late one summer afternoon in a tourist city airport, a lightning storm halted all flights for about an hour. It happened at the frenzy of the busiest daily time for departing flights.
Anger erupted almost immediately from people waiting in line to check ticket alternatives. Threats and loud demands were hurled at the helpless counter agents. Frantic keyboard searches yielded few acceptable options as the minutes ticked away. Complaints were relayed up and down the long lines of frustrated travelers.
Two petite women seemed impervious to all this commotion. They stood patiently, carrying on their own conversation in a low key manner. When they finally arrived at the ticket counter, they leaned over and whispered words of comfort and concern to the frazzled agent. They apologized for the verbal onslaught and understood that the situation was out of anyone's hands. They received their new tickets and seat assignments for a later flight, and returned to their seats to await departure.
Ninety minutes later, those two women made their way into the plane. Another challenge awaited them because they couldn't find their seats. A beaming, gracious flight attendant found them, and offered a silent escort to their first class seats, compliments of the appreciative counter agents.
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We are reminded of Jesus' warning in Luke 14 about attempting to take the "seat of honor" for ourselves. Let us live humbly and patiently instead!
Source: Bradley Will, "Proper 17, Year C, 8/30/1998." In "Sermonshop Sermons" emailing list.
Topics/Tags: Patience; Humility; Self-denial
"I read a sad little story about a child who found a flask-shaped cocoon of an emperor moth and kept it in a little box for a year, waiting fairly patiently for something to happen. The cocoon of the emperor moth is peculiar in its shape and construction. A narrow opening is left at the neck of the structure through which the perfect moth forces its way out. You would wonder, as this child did, how such a large moth could pass through such a small opening.
"Eventually, the time arrived for the moth to escape from its long confinement. The child watched its efforts for hours as it struggled to get out, but it just couldn't seem to make it. Finally, the child's patience was exhausted. Perhaps, she thought, because it had been kept in a box rather than in its natural environment, it had been weakened in some way.
"In any event, the child's compassion overtook wisdom and with the point of some scissors, carefully she snipped the opening to make it larger. And then with perfect ease the moth appeared, dragging a huge swollen body and small shrivelled wings. The child watched breathlessly, waiting to see a marvellous transformation take place. But the wait was in vain. It didn't change into a creature of great beauty with exquisitely marked wings, but remained a stunted abortion, crawling painfully through its brief life instead of flying through the air on rainbow wings.
"What the child had failed to appreciate in an impatience tempered by compassion, is that as the moth struggles its way through the narrow opening of the cocoon, body juices are forced into the wings and muscles. The child, innocently, had circumvented God's perfect design because of impatience."
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"A great deal is said in the Bible about waiting for God, or on God. We so easily grow impatient of God's delays. Much of our trouble in life comes from our restlessness and sometimes reckless haste. We cannot wait for the fruit to ripen, we pick it green. We cannot wait for the answers to our prayers, although the things we may ask for may require many years in their preparation for us. We are urged to walk with God, but at times God walks oh so slowly. It's indeed fortunate that our God is faithful as well as patient because so many times He has to wait for us."
Source: Pastor Ron Clarke, Clergy/Leaders' Mailing List #509: "Patience"
Evangelist Junior Hill recounts times throughout his career when he's endured less-than-ideal situations in hotels: roaches crawling along the ceiling; cigarette burns in sheets and chairs; various states of disrepair throughout the room.
He notes, though, that when you find a roach or insect in a hotel room, you don't call an exterminator—because you're just "Passing Through."
Likewise, when you discover in your hotel room a chair or couch that's in need of repair, you don't call an upholsterer—because you're just "Passing Through."
In the same way, Hill notes, Christians can deal with trouble—and not get too bothered by tribulation—because they, too, are just "Passing Through" this earthly realm.
"For the Christian," Hill states, "trouble is always tempered by time." Because we know our destination, we can deal with tribulation.
Source: Junior Hill, 11/2/1998
Topics/Tags: Tribulation; Patience; Eternal life
"Good ideas are not adopted automatically. They must be driven into practice with courageous patience."
- Admiral Hyman Rickover -
Source: "Christian Leadership" email discussion list
Topics/Tags: Ideas; Change; Persistence; Patience
Where there is charity and wisdom, there is neither fear nor ignorance.
Where there is patience and humility, there is neither anger nor vexation.
Where there is poverty and joy, there is neither greed nor avarice.
Where there is peace and meditation, there is neither anxiety nor doubt.
- St Francis of Assisi
Source: "Christian Leadership" email discussion list
Browse By Topic P Patience