Two huge stone lions sit outside the New York public library.   Mayor Fiorello La Guardia named them “Patience” and “Fortitude,” during the midst of the Great Depression, to let New Yorkers know that they could survive the economic disaster. 

Patience is key in running the Christian race.  Hebrews 12:1-2 urges, “Seeing we also are compassed about with so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which doth so easily beset us, and let us run with patience the race that is set before us, Looking unto Jesus the author and finisher of our faith; who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is set down at the right hand of the throne of God.”

Fortitude is “strength of mind that allows one to endure pain or adversity with courage.” This is what Paul spoke of when he said “we glory in tribulations also: knowing that tribulation worketh patience; And patience, experience; and experience, hope: And hope maketh not ashamed; because the love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Ghost which is given unto us” (Romans 5:3-5).