A person’s insight gives him patience, and his virtue is to overlook an offense.  Proverbs 19:11.

How all of us need patience! Because the Lord commands it of His children, it is possible to attain it. He never commands that which He refuses to grant. And it is He, through His Word, Who does so! Since that is so—let’s listen to that Word.

What does He say enables us to be patient-even when we’ve been offended? Look again at the verse: “insight.” To what does Solomon refer? To an understanding of life as it is depicted in the Scriptures—in this case, in Proverbs itself.

When you recognize what is really happening, what people are like, and how to treat them in biblical ways, you will respond with patience. This patience will mean waiting on the Lord’s help as you first do all that he requires of you.

And sometimes, there will be no pleasant resolution of an issue. You will be required to overlook an offense against you, even when it costs you embarrassment, money, or whatever!

Are you patient when such things occur? Are you willing to ask God to help you obtain all the insight necessary for cultivating it? Are you willing to take it on the chin occasionally? That’s what patience is all about.