5 Ways Patience Will Encourage Your Spouse

Patience. It’s one of the Fruit of the Spirit. (Galatians 5:22) It’s also a necessary virtue in every marriage – in every season of marriage – and a way to encourage your spouse.

We usually subscribe to the idea that patience is necessary in the more negative seasons, but it’s also a wonderful gift during a growing season.

Any change requires patience.

Robert and I are in a new season of our marriage.

We’ve begun an adventure, where we’ve sold our house, and purchased a Fifth Wheel to travel for eighteen months. As great as this season is shaping up to be, it’s definitely a time for patience.

As we pulled out of Lerch RV where we bought our Light Open Range Fifth Wheel, it was in a rain storm. This was our first time towing our new home. Scary. And the sky just opened up.

Not a dribble, not a drab, but a deluge!

And then we faced an incline. No. Not an incline — a mountain! And our poor pickup, a Ford F150, was towing a massive amount of weight, cars were zooming by, and we crept up that hill. Slowly. With our four-way lights blinking, we joined the lineup of transport truckers making the trek upward. We finally arrived at our first campground destination. I was hyperventilating the entire way. But Robert was patient.

On our second day of driving, we went from Milroy, Pennsylvania to Roanoke, Virginia. (about 6.5 hours) All during that time, Robert displayed a fierce patience, as I gasped, pressed the non-existent passenger side brake pedal, and repeated at every corner, “Swing wide. Swing wide.”

Yet. At the end of the second day, I felt encouraged. Robert’s patience with me made all the difference.

5 Ways Patience Will Encourage Your Spouse

Patience is multi-faceted.

When you demonstrate patience, your spouse will feel the effects immediately, and far into the future. Here are five ways patience will encourage your spouse. (And in this instance, I am a living, breathing beneficiary of Robert’s encouragement through patience.)

1. Patience paves a smooth road.

Whenever patience is needed, there’s a good chance the road (figuratively and literally) is a bit bumpy. Sometimes it’s good bumpy, and sometimes it’s bad bumpy, but the divits and humps are smoothed whenever patience is lathered in the cracks.

2. Patience nourishes trust.

Trust takes time. And patience extended, is like compound interest in the time bank-account. Drop in some loving patience, and your trust bank account is going to sky-rocket.

3. Patience promises peace.

Living through upheaval? Extend the gift of patience to your spouse, and you’ll lay the path for peace.

4. Patience promotes laughter.

It’s so much easier to laugh at the absurdities of life when your spouse manages their emotions to create an atmosphere of patience. You can do that for your spouse, and then look forward to laughing together. (At least when it’s all over.)

5. Patience tunes the environment for harmony.

Our spouse reacts to the way we are feeling. By using patience as a tuner, harmony becomes a by-product.