William Langland wrote the first-ever recording of the phrase, “Patience is a virtue” sometime between 1360 and 1387.
A Greek proverb says, “One ⏳minute of patience, ten ⏳years of peace.”
Or- as Arnold H. Glasow put it, “The 🔑key to everything is patience. You get the 🐔chicken by hatching the 🐣egg, not by smashing it.”
Our collective patience was tested this week.😬 Regardless of how you voted, finding patience was probably tough. The 24-hour news cycles.✔ The maps.✔ The constant projections. ✔Those percentage points. ✔Your social media news feeds.✔
Yeah- having patience wasn’t easy over these last several days. But- this post isn’t political. That was just a good place to start because we all know what it felt like to be impatient. Let’s stick to the 💡idea of patience.
We live in a world with instant gratification. ✨While that may seem convenient, it may not be the best way to teach patience. We’ve grown accustomed to receiving what we want pretty much when we want it. 🌠Two-day shipping. 📦Meal delivery. 🍱Notifications for likes and comments for our posts in real-time. Texting. Calculators. Microwaves. Virtual doctors. 🎶Spotify. Hulu. 📺Netflix.
Your 📱cell phone alone can solve pretty much anything you might need at any given moment. Think about that power- right there in your pocket!
I remember my parents giving me change for a 📞payphone if I was going to be late and needed to call home when I was a teenager. Now, I simply click open the Life 360 app and know instantly where my teenager is. 💥No patience is required.
A student handed a 📝paper to me the other day while asking me about the grade for it. I explained that I needed time to evaluate his work. He followed that with, “What do you THINK I got on it?” Keep in mind that he just put the paper in my hand!😂
Do you ever send an email and start checking for a response within minutes of hitting send? Guilty!🙋
Instant gratification, like I said. It’s become our way of life. That’s not such a bad thing. Modern conveniences show progress and innovation. They make life easier.
However, ease can’t overshadow patience.💯 When we’re patient, we learn perseverance. 💝We become mentally stronger.💝 We feel calm over anxiousness.💝 We learn acceptance.💝 We find opportunities.💝
Patience brings grace and tolerance. It leads to confidence. It results in more thoughtful decisions. It allows for compassion. It shares kindness. Quite simply- patience shows a quality of character.
What if…we’re patient? Saint Augustine said that patience is the companion of wisdom. We learn things during the waiting 🎲games of life. Slow it down. 👀Look around. Listen. Be patient. Good things come to those who wait.💖
sharing the stairs 