Patience...Can I have some of that?

Children seldom misquote. In fact, they usually repeat word for word what you shouldn't have said. ~Author Unknown

My daughter loves her Barbies. She can get lost in her world of pink doll houses and purple convertibles for hours. She talks out loud, making her dolls carry on full conversations with one another. I love to listen to her and I sometimes giggle at what I hear. But I stopped in my tracks when I heard, “Ken will be here in a minute! He called and said ‘BE PATIENT!’”

There was no need to wonder where she heard those words because she only hears them ten times a day from my own mouth. “We’ll be there in a minute. Be Patient!” “Supper will be ready soon. Be Patient!” and on and on it goes. I know I’m not the only parent who says these words on a daily basis, yet how often do we as adults fail to be patient ourselves? I’m just as guilty as the next person. I can’t wait to “hurry up and graduate,” can’t wait for the weekends, and even in the middle of a good run, I can’t wait for an ice cold tea and a hot shower so I can get on with the things I have to do that day. But if we aren’t patient with the little things in life, how will we ever conquer and overcome the big things?

We live in a world that expects everything yesterday. Most of the time, we fail to focus on today for worrying about tomorrow. We all have places to be, deadlines, responsibilities, and goals to achieve. Can we really expect our children to learn patience when we constantly rush them along? “Hurry up and brush your teeth,” “Hurry up and get dressed,” “Hurry up and get in the car,” and on and on this goes, too.

Psalm 46:10 tells us, “Be still and know that I am God.”In that stillness, those moments when we really stop and listen to God, we are most likely to hear what He may be telling us, which sometimes may be: “Be patient!” We often communicate our wants and desires to God, but rarely stop to hear what He has to say. Yet, having patience doesn’t mean sitting idly by, waiting for an answer to fall from the sky. It’s not waiting for something to be handed to you or waiting for the right thing to “just happen.” Instead, having patience means taking action, doing our part, our job, our task, our responsibility. It’s doing all we are capable of, even under pressure or when the odds are against us, and trusting in God to handle the rest.

Back in the year 1377, author William Langland was the first to say that “patience is a virtue,” but I say that it’s still one hard concept even for adults to grasp. I don’t claim to be an expert on patience (nor the Bible for that matter) but I know that every day I am learning more about the value of both. So the next time I plead for patience from my child, I’ll try to remember she really is listening. And I’ll remind myself to pause and do the same.


But sometimes, at the end of the day, I just feel like the chicken here!!!