It can be hard.
From this talk by Dieter F. Uchtdorf:
Waiting can be hard. Children know it, and so do adults. We live in a world offering fast food, instant messaging, on-demand movies, and immediate answers to the most trivial or profound questions. We don’t like to wait. Some even feel their blood pressure rise when their line at the grocery store moves slower than those around them.
Patience—the ability to put our desires on hold for a time—is a precious and rare virtue. We want what we want, and we want it now. Therefore, the very idea of patience may seem unpleasant and, at times, bitter.
Nevertheless, without patience, we cannot please God; we cannot become perfect. Indeed, patience is a purifying process that refines understanding, deepens happiness, focuses action, and offers hope for peace.
photo by Zannie
Thanks, Pres. Uchtdorf! I’m planning on a few more of these sorts of posts, using excerpts from this talk. It’s wonderful, and -confession- I don’t have time for much else this week.
I hope this doesn’t mean you aren’t letting your children do and have everything they want, when they want it?
Whew! You had me worried there for a second.
Isn’t it annoying – I mean, funny – how much patience it takes to teach children patience? I want them to have patience and I want them to have it NOW! hahaha…
Hah, like a few weeks ago when I was preparing a lesson for the 5th Sunday adult meeting about “Faith, Diligence, and Patience” and the period I was studying patience happened to also be the day a missed bus connection caused a snowball of missed public transit connections that turned the 90min commute into a 180min (3hr) commute. It wasn’t until an hour or two into my study of “patience” the irony of the missed routes dawned on me.
Huh! I wonder why I don’t remember that one… That little detour was heaven-sent, though, given how little time you had in the evenings to work on it at home.
It was on the way to work; I’m sure if the commute were 3hrs on the way home, you would have noticed my absence. At least, I’ll continue believing my absence would have been noted. If otherwise, please don’t disabuse me of the notion.
Thank you for this! For some reason, Heavenly Father is blessing me with many opportunities for patience; patience with my kids at home, patience for my little girl to grow her esophagus so she can finally come home, patience with hospitals, insurance companies, and nursing staff that I don’t necessarily agree with as far as care for my baby. I want her body to heal itself instantly. But I’m realizing that now is MY time to grow and progress. So, thank you for the reminder!
I am in awe with the challenges you’re handling and the way you’re handling them so well right now! Sending lots of prayers your way all the time.
Good luck hanging in there!
I love your posts! This one hits home for me right now, with my recent ultrasound discovery. I thought I was going to have a baby boy, but it looks like I’ll need to have more patience and wait, and have faith that I will have one eventually.
Tough to do! Easier said than done! But I am working on it.
I normally think I have quite a bit of patience, but my children disagree. I guess they aren’t aware of all the times I stop myself from yelling at them before I actually break down and DO.