To Those Who Wait

Patience.

It’s a virtue.

and is required for “all good things,” to come.

and it is SO HARD to be.

Why is it that waiting seems harder than so many physical and mortal challenges we face?

We are told that patience is power, that good things come to those who wait. But the world today has made patience something very difficult to achieve… With entertainment and answers available at our very finger tips and nearly anything you could want to buy waiting in amazons warehouses to arrive at your front door.

In our world in these times, patience, though difficult to learn, may be even more essential to each person than it once was. Immediate gratification so often wins out over the slow and steady growth. It is so easy to choose something that will “make” you happy or satisfied in the now than to make the smarter (harder) choice that will offer you more down the road.

I am so bad at this, because for me- although we struggle with our student debt and other issues- it is so easy to buy fast food when I’m hungry and don’t feel like dirtying the kitchen and making food at home.

And I am not the only one who struggles with this. We have been spoiled through the technologies and convinces of our day.

The very idea of patience has been warped into this notion that waiting 20 minutes to be seated as a restaurant is embodying the virtue.

What is it really to have patience?

I think it means many things.

Patience can mean waiting 20 minutes (or more,) to be seated at a restaurant. It can be the slow breath you force when something exciting happens, or is going to happen. It can be dealing with that “difficult” co-worker or client.

Or even forgiving someone for the 490th time.

We are all called to deal with different things in this life, and I have a theory that each of us go through just what we need to really be able to learn patience in all its forms.

Marriage.

So many of us are blessed with this union that is so bright and blind at first, then becomes one of our biggest calls to patience we will be given in this life.

As well as being a grace and gift to help us through patience in other trials.

As are children and other family.

But patience isn’t the only action needed to receive those blessings- but waiting in faith that you will be made stronger and hope that you will be blessed because of your hardships.

One day, I will truly be a patient woman.

I do believe that I am currently a faithful woman, and a hopeful one– and have been made so through the trials I’ve faced. But I am not yet truly patient.

One day…..