Patience Must Be Practiced

        Of all the virtues, patience is one of the most difficult to cultivate. Patience requires waiting, and we live in a culture which hates to wait. I read recently of a shooting which took place when someone cut in line in front of someone else. A man was so enraged by this, that he confronted the person, and a then shot them.

        How do we learn patience? We want something and we have to wait for it. One of my children would give anything to have a horse. But we can’t afford to buy a horse, and we don’t have room to keep one at home; someday my child will have a horse; she may have to grow up, get an education and a job, and then buy a horse, but she cannot have one now. It may be years before she gets what she wants. Meanwhile, she dreams about horses and we let her take horseback lessons and ride in the 4-H drill team. She is learning patience.

        Many of us have forgotten to be patient, or we never learned how. If we had parents that got us whatever we wanted as soon as we wanted it, we may never have learned to be patient. If we learned to use credit cards to get whatever we wanted as soon as we wanted it, we may have forgotten how to be patient. We want to rush things; as soon as we see something we like, we want it right then. I believe this is dangerous for our culture. It is dangerous for our children to not know how to wait. It is dangerous to our finances, and it is dangerous to our spiritual development. Much can be learned from learning how to wait patiently.

        Patience brings rewards. It can keep us out of debt, or help us get out of debt. It can keep us from making unwise choices . It can help keep us physically safe, and it can help us grow spiritually.