How do you react when you are inconvenienced? How do you handle annoyances? Every day we are faced with new challenges that test our endurance and patience. Through patience we have the opportunity to express love for imperfect people and for life despite all its challenges and difficulties.
Patience is a passive demonstration of love. It is not what you do as much as how you respond to people or situations. Patience is…calmly enduring an inconvenience; not reacting impulsively when a decision needs to be made; hoping in the midst of opposition; staying faithful and believing despite delay; submitting without resistance when it is the best option; and, gracefully accepting hardships that cannot be changed.
There is a calm quality to patience. When you are patient, you are in no hurry. You are able to wait for as long as is necessary. You persist in believing without giving up. Your temper is under control. And you are not disturbed by inconveniences and annoyances.
Patience communicates love. It says:
People are illogical, unreasonable, and self-centered. Love them anyway. ~Kent M. Keith
Life is filled with obstacles and imperfect people that hinder our plans, slow us down, and annoy us.
Patience clearly communicates love in a very special way. Patience is commonly said to be a virtue. It is a quality that can be developed and practiced by every one of us.
How understanding and tolerant am I with people in my life?
Do I persist in the face of difficulties or setbacks? Explain.
How do I manage times of delay and waiting?
What tries my patience more than anything else? How do I respond?
What do I expect from others that keeps me from being patient
with them?
On a scale of 0 to 10, with 10 being “completely” and 0 being “not at all” how would I rate my overall level of patience?
Is there someone in my life that I need to be more patient with? What can I do differently?
I can accept life as being imperfect. I can allow myself and others to have flaws.
