"Patience is the capacity to endure delay, trouble, opposition, or suffering without becoming angry, frustrated, or anxious."(PMG pg. 120) This brief description of patience changed my life.
How many times do you hear, 'I'm praying for patience.' Well don't do that! Because then you'll be put in a situation that causes you to use it!! I've been thinking a lot about how my patience is being tested. It was for sure tested on the mission...many times. But in real life every day we are faced with opportunities to enlarge our capacity to have more patience.
I was looking over this definition again the other day and I recognized that I've gotten a lot better at not getting angry in a lot of situations. Not all. But I realized I'm still way behind on the frustration and anxious side of using my patience. While serving I found a good trick to help with patience, was to recognize those times I felt, angry, frustrated or anxious and then simply remind myself to not feel that way. To not fuel those natural feelings. It was like a miracle! I found that the more I asked the Lord to help me recognize the moments I was feeling angry, frustrated or anxious, the more I remembered to use patience. This inevitably enlarges that capacity mentioned above, that helps us to endure delay, trouble, opposition, and suffering.
So now that I realize that I'm not doing so good on the frustrating and anxious front, I'm going to be careful on how I pray for help in those areas.
Like someone said ... "patience is a virtue."
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