Continue in Patience

One of my vices in this world is my lack of patience. It seems the harder I work at improving in that area, there is more around me that tests my patience. I want to know how to play that guitar in the back of my closet...right now. I want to lose 15 pounds...right now. I want my toddler to learn to get dressed faster. Notice how many "I's" are in those few sentences? Being patient isn't all about "I" or "me", but that's where the change has to happen.

Last week, I heard from a friend about the Stanford Marshmallow Study. Four-year-olds were asked if they would rather have one marshmallow now or two marshmallows 15 minutes later (watch a short video here - you'll be amazed, humored and impressed). The study followed the children until they graduated from high school and found a correlation between those who could delay gratification, i.e. be patient, to success and positivity, and between those who acted impulsively to stubbornness and lack of self confidence. My husband came home from the Saturday evening session of General Conference for the men of the church and told me President Uchtdorf talked about patience and cited the study in the introduction to his remarks, and I knew I had to know more.

So, what which marshmallow option would you have chosen? It's hard for me to say since I don't think I've always been lacking in patience. President Uchtdorf said, "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 bitter. Nevertheless, without patience, we cannot please God; we cannot become perfect. Indeed, patience is a purifying process that refines understanding, deepens happiness, focuses action and offers hope for peace."

There is hope for me to be a more understanding, patient wife, mother, sister, daughter, friend if I remember the reward that comes to those exhibiting self control and even long suffering - peace. That is, patient with those around me, patient with myself, and patient with the process of living a fulfilling life each day.

"Patience means to abide in faith, knowing that sometimes it is in the waiting rather than in the receiving that we grow the most."