19 May Patience is a virtue
Patience, tolerance and faith
We’ve all heard the saying that patience is a virtue. Recently I realised there was another perspective from the one I’ve often viewed it from. Maybe it’s because of the situation I was in when I first heard it. However, I cannot tell you either what situation I was in or when I first heard it. Therefore I suspect I was quite young when I did first listen to it.
Even though I’ve heard the saying many times in my life, I had only viewed it from the perspective I had. While reading the attached card, and because of personal experiences lately, I’ve realised there is another perspective that I had not considered regarding this saying.
Patience has many viewpoints
I’ve realised there are varying ways of viewing that expression. The first one is about patiently waiting for a special event, like birthdays, the birth of a sibling, a wedding, Easter or Christmas. It is waiting for a time to come where you get to experience something that you are looking forward to.
Another frame of reference is practising patience as a feeling. It’s the acceptance of someone. It is taking more time than you’d like, like waiting in the checkout queue at the local shopping centre, waiting to board an aeroplane, or for the train to arrive on your platform so you can get to where you want to go.
Yet another way to practice patience is by having faith in a process, a person or a situation by knowing that everything will work out in the end. The story is not over yet. Your story is not over yet. Although it may seem you are forever practising patience for something in your life to change, it will not change without taking some action towards achieving your goal.
Learning patience
Like every characteristic, we continually grow and develop tolerance, kindness, responsibility and every other aspect, which are also known as virtues, throughout our lives. This is why it is essential, and valuable, to focus on one characteristic each week. When you focus on an aspect each week, you deepen your character qualities and resilience.
As you become more and more familiar with all the characteristics within you, you will discover that you are much more aware of not only what your strength characteristics are, but also what characteristics you need to be more patient with yourself in developing it further. The more familiar you are with character traits the easier it is to know which traits you need to call on when you need to apply it.
Consequently, you grow and strengthen emotionally and mentally when you are aware of your characteristics and who are you are, and who you want to be. As a result, you grow more comfortable your own skin and therefore are more self-confident within yourself, which is then portrayed to the world through your actions.
Living with patience
This takes patience – knowing you who are and who you want to be, happens continually throughout your life as you change all the time. You are not the same person you were five months ago, or five years ago. Things change in your life and so do you. In the last five months, you have learnt more about specific topics, you have met more people who have taught you different things through your conversations and experiences, you have learnt more about yourself – if you were paying attention.
Teaching children patience
There are opportunities throughout the day to teach children about patience in this instant gratification world. It is essential that we teach children about patience. That it is a characteristic – as well as the many other characteristics. It is vital that they learn patience in this world where road rage is prevalent within our society, and some people think that their emotions control them and therefore their actions.
Children can be taught patience by asking them to be patient while you finish something before you can respond to their request. Explaining to a child that you are practising patience while you are stuck behind a truck on the road which you’d like to overtake but you can’t because it is not safe at the moment. There are circumstances throughout the day when a simple request or explanation makes a big difference in helping them learn about their own characteristics so they can see and hear it in action through it being role modelled to them.
The downside to patience
Waiting patiently for something to happen isn’t always the approach to take. Many things do not occur without action being taken. Time is of the essence.
You are placed in positions throughout your life, such as a parent or a leader, where it is vital that you take action. If you want something to change in your life, anything, you need to do something about it. You know yourself well enough to know whether you will take the action you need to take on your own, or whether you need to hire a coach who will help you obtain your goal or purpose.
When you focus on one characteristic you will realise that you are practising more than one at a time – you use your wisdom to discern whether you need to practice patience or whether you need to take action to make things happen – regardless do not be hard on yourself or anyone else – be kind, be kind, be kind.
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