Patience

I have a friend at work who had her baby at 28 weeks. Her baby is now 3 weeks old. I look at her blog daily to see what the updates are and how this sweet baby girl and her mom are doing. One of her posts began like this:

'Patience is a virtue.

It's just not one of mine!'

Now, my life is no where near as trying as her's and her families right now, but I could not agree more with this statement in my life. Especially these last few weeks! I have just not been a patient person at all!! I have lost most of my desire to even try to be patient!

As I put 2 of the 4 kids down for naps this afternoon I put on a tv show and told the other 2 to sit in their chairs, eat their snacks, and I didn't want to hear a whine or complaint from either of them. (What a good mom/babysitter I am eh?) I then came over to the computer to get started on a small thought I was supposed to give at enrichment night tonight. I somehow ended up looking at this last General Conferences talks and then reading Elder Uchtdorf's talk... about patience! What a wonderful talk! Here are some of my favorite quotes:

'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.'

I want a nap. I want to lay around and watch the Today Show all morning. I want it to be time for me and KC to go on our cruise. I want to be done babysitting. I want a home. I want KC to be completely done with school.... the list goes on and on. And I want those things NOW! So yes, it does seem unpleasant and more often than not, bitter.

'I learned that patience was far more than simply waiting for something to happen—patience required actively working toward worthwhile goals and not getting discouraged when results didn’t appear instantly or without effort.

There is an important concept here: patience is not passive resignation, nor is it failing to act because of our fears. Patience means active waiting and enduring. It means staying with something and doing all that we can—working, hoping, and exercising faith; bearing hardship with fortitude, even when the desires of our hearts are delayed. Patience is not simply enduring; it is enduring well!

Impatience, on the other hand, is a symptom of selfishness. It is a trait of the self-absorbed. It arises from the all-too-prevalent condition called “center of the universe” syndrome, which leads people to believe that the world revolves around them and that all others are just supporting cast in the grand theater of mortality in which only they have the starring role.'

So your saying the world doesn't revolve around me? I am not going to get everything I want when I want it. What really stuck out to me in this part of the talk was that it is an active thing. Instead of sitting around wishing I was done babysitting, I need to actively play with the kids so that the day goes faster. Instead of wishing my cruise day was here, I need to be sure we are fully and completely prepared to go. Instead of wishing KC was done with grad school and had a real live job and we had a real live house, I should be bettering myself learning how to organize, decorate, budget, etc. I should be loving the moment I am in and making the most of the friendships I get to make along the way. Instead of constantly complaining about the pains and annoyances I have I should be celebrating my blessings!

Brigham Young taught that when something came up which he could not comprehend fully, he would pray to the Lord, “Give me patience to wait until I can understand it for myself.”⁵ And then Brigham would continue to pray until he could comprehend it.

I love this idea! I am going to try to do this more often. Pray to have the patience until I can understand certain trials. (Though I think the last few times I have prayed for patience the Lord just hands me more trials to try to be patient through!)

I hope I can learn to be a more patient person. I hope that one day I can claim it to be a virtue I actually have.

Until then, I only have to practice for 2 more days and I am off on a lovely voyage in the sun with my sweet hubby!!!