Growing in Patience

Lisa O Engelhardt

• Publisher: CareNotes
• Year: 2015
• ISBN:
  9781504016834
• Topic: Personal Development
• Subtopic: Mental Health & Wellbeing

Many of us are impatient; the responsibilities and hardships of life seem to try our patience at every turn. And sometimes, it's the little things that make us snap. However, scripture tells us that "God is faithful, and he will not let you be tested beyond your strength, but with the testing he will also provide the way out so that you may be able to endure it" (1 Corinthians 10: 13). With those wise and hopeful words in mind, Growing in Patience presents positive, productive, and spiritual ways to deal with impatience. After all, patience must be nurtured. It is a virtue we must prayerfully ask for from God and then—by God's grace—seek to put into practice each day.

From the mundane—heavy traffic, bad service, annoying people—to the serious—financial losses, family problems, serious illness—life seems to breed impatience.

Unfortunately, impatience is not a faucet we can turn on or off. Many vexing things in life we cannot control. Others we can control, but only through special know-how and courage on our part. Still other situations simply require copious faith and forbearance. This book is a guide to cultivating patience.

God grant me the

Serenity

to accept the things

I cannot change,

Courage to change

the things I can,

and Wisdom to know

the difference.

—The Serenity Prayer

An exercise that may help you is to get a piece of paper, and in one column make a list of several situations that trigger your frustration. In a second column, write out some appropriate actions that you realistically can take to lessen your impatience in these situations.

“Patience is a virtue,” and like all virtues, it must be cultivated. You may know laid-back people who seem to have endless patience, but for most of us, patience must be nurtured. It is a virtue which we prayerfully ask from God, and then—by God’s grace—seek to put into practice each day.

Remember that you always have a choice in how you respond to irritation. Even when you’re fuming, you don’t have to respond with temper. Try slowly counting to 10 (this really does work), deep and measured breathing, or channeling your energy into physical exercise.

… let everyone be

quick to listen,

slow to speak,

slow to anger …

—James 1:19

Practice saying the Jesus Prayer each time you feel impatient, finding the power in the repetition of this prayer: “Lord, Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me, a sinner.”

Impatience is often about comparing our present situation to what we think it should be. Things are not going our way or progressing quickly enough. People are not behaving as we think they ought.

While normal, this kind of thinking diminishes our capacity for joy, peace, and constructive action. Nothing is perfect—not us, not others, not life. If we ...

Table of contents

• Cover Page
• Title Page
• Introduction
• Growing in Patience
• About the Author
• Copyright Page