This thing called patience is annoying.

Patience has been something that has been on my mind a lot recently. I can be a stubborn person and when I want something, I want it now. I don't want to wait for whatever I am desiring. My stubbornness is something I am trying to work on. I want to become a little more flexible and patient. This will be a lifelong journey for me to change my stubbornness. 

First some funny things about patience. I went to the temple today and was praying to have patience. Well, let me tell you when you pray for patience, things happen. I had to wait more than the usual time as I was in the temple. I had to wait to change for 10 minutes because someone was in my stall. When I was driving home, I was stuck behind a truck the whole time. I kept hoping it would turn so I could speed up, but it didn't. I just had to drive slow behind the truck the whole drive home. So, pray for patience and you will have plenty of opportunities to exercise your patience.

 

As I have been reflecting on patience, I have learned a couple of things and am continuously learning everyday. Patience is not passively waiting. Patience is a active process. Especially when you are inquiring for a answer or desire, you need to do more than just pray and wait. It requires action. God expects us to do some of the work as we are figuring out answers. 

Patience requires both faith and hope. If we don't have faith and hope, then I think its nearly impossible to have patience. When we are waiting for something we want, the hope that this promise will come true is what carries us to endure. The faith that the individual will fulfill their promise allows us to trust and move forward. I think this why we struggle so much in our development of patience. We desire something yet we lack the faith that it will come. We may have a seed of faith but our seed hasn't grown enough to help us endure. In this case, we need to strengthen our faith that God will provide for our needs or desires in his timing. 

Patience requires an eternal perspective. This correlates with having faith and hope. When we have faith and hope, our vision stretches farther than the moment we currently live in. We can see with a eternal perspective that gives us hope that one day we will receive what we are praying for. Even harder, if we don't receive what we are looking for, we can see with a eternal perspective of why we didn't. If we have faith, we will be grateful for the reason why we didn't receive our request. 

Patience requires a understanding of God's timing and individual plan for us. When we are patient, we will understand that things will happen according to God's plan. We know that his plan is different than ours. We will  show patience in waiting to understand God's plan for us and receiving things according to his timing.

Lastly, patience requires endurance. When some people think of endurance, they think of simply getting through the moment. Sometimes we have moments like that, where the best we can do is just endure. Life is not meant to be simply endured, but enjoyed. Learning to enjoy the moments of frustration and pain is a hard thing to do. When we finally learn how we can enjoy instead of only enduring, I think having patience is easier to develop. 

Most importantly, God wants us to be happy and receive the blessings if we are patient and obedient. When praying for a righteous desire, I think it makes God happy. He is willing to provide these righteous desires when it is right. So, we have to work on all of these things to develop our patience. 

This is what I have learned from my studying and reflecting on patience. The hard part about all of these things is actually applying them. Now time to practice them! Who knows maybe you can be stuck behind a slow truck?