Patience

"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."

My friend posted this quote on FB a couple weeks ago. I've thought about patience for a long time now. I think patience is a very important quality to have and learn. I used to think I had patience until I became a mom and I couldn't figure out my newborn's needs and she was screaming for hours. I remember praying daily for Heavenly Father to give me patience to meet her needs. We all have to practice some type pf patience in our lives. Just recently, I've had to be patient with the selling of our home. One day I was so frustrated and mad at what was happening. I went on FB to find this picture below.

This is my friend and her little boy. They almost lost him and didn't know most of the time what was going to happen. They had to wait and wait and wait. He was in ICU for 2 months, and thankfully is now home. For the whole story check out http://williamantoniotodd.blogspot.com/

Today we live in a society that has a hard time waiting. We want what we want . . . now. I've thought about when this starts and I was thinking about how our children have to practice patience at an early age. I can recall when my daughter was 3 and she wanted dinner . . . and she wanted it now! All you moms can understand . . . your children get hungry, you do your best to have dinner ready before it gets to that point but that's not always the way it goes so then you are cooking dinner but they want to eat. I told Jocelynn, it's almost ready. She wasn't happy with that answer. We then started to talk about what patience means. I've watched several Mormon messages. One message I like is called "Continuing in Patience." President Uchtdorf talks about an experiment given to 4 year old children in the 1960s. A marshmellow was placed before them and he told them they could eat it right away or if they waited then they could have 2. Some ate it right away and others waited. Only 30% were able to wait. This study suggested that "the ability to wait, to be patient, was a key character trait that might predict later success in life." I've thought about when we have the character trait of patience then we are able to enjoy the blessings we are given at that moment. Even if there is something that we want really bad. . . patience can help us be grateful and experience true joy. The other day Jocelynn says to me "Mom I want Carter to run and talk to me." I said to her "that will be so much fun but isn't he so cute being little." I think as we are patient we can appreciate the beauty our Heavenly Father has blessed us with already. Today was a moment where I needed to practice some patience. It was 2pm and Jocelynn was eating a snack. She said at the table, "I want to eat this but I don't" and the melt down started to occur. She just doesn't cry, she cries hard and becomes irrational. I held her in my arms and carried her upstairs. I knew she was tired. She wailed her arms up and down and said she didn't want to go to bed. I said no it's bedtime. Carter followed us up and began playing with her toys in her room. I held her in my arms and was trying to calm her down and sing to her. There have been times when I've yelled, shut the door, lost my patience but this time was different. She closed her eyes within a minute and fell asleep. I couldn't believe it either. I thought about patience and because I practiced patience at that moment. I experienced love. Love is patient. And when we are patient we experience love. I wondered if that would be the last time I held her in my arms while she slept. It was a sweet moment. So I hope we can all try to practice patience in our lives and I think as we do we will be happier and grateful for what we've been blessed with. President Uchtdorf closed by saying "Patience means staying with something until the end. It means delaying immediate gratification for future blessings. The work of patience boils down to this: keep the commandments, trust in God our Heavenly Father, serve him with meekness and Christlike love, excercise faith and hope in the Savior, and never give up!"