Two critical truisms in today’s Word that are inextricably linked:

Ecc 7:8  Finishing is better than starting. Patience is better than pride.

If you’ve ever completed a long drawn out task, there is a particular sense of accomplishment that comes from it, and it certainly feels better than when it began.  A specific example of this could be going to work, that first hour of work and all the tasks that lay ahead can seem quite burdensome, but the satisfaction of clocking out after an honest day’s work and having all those jobs in the rearview mirror feels amazing.  

The latter half of today’s Word says: Patience is better than Pride. — this points out that it is better to be patient than to be prideful.  .  The quiet, patient and humble worker will always get better results than the arrogant and lazy worker who tries to take short cuts.  

It’s like the fable the tortise and the hare.  The hare was arrogant, ran to what was almost the finish line, and then fell asleep, arrogantly thinking there’s no way the tortoise can catch up to me, but the patient tortoise prodded along and next thing we know, he passed the slumbering rabbit and crossing the finish line.  

To summarize, it is far more virtuous to be patient and humble rather than proud,  boastful and arrogant, and the end of job is better than beginning one, which should encourage us to finish what we started.