"Patience is not indifference. Actually, it is caring very much, but being willing, nevertheless, to submit both to the Lord and to what the scriptures call the “process of time.”
Patience is tied very closely to faith in our Heavenly Father. Actually, when we are unduly impatient, we are suggesting that we know what is best—better than does God. Or, at least, we are asserting that our timetable is better than his. Either way we are questioning the reality of God’s omniscience..." Elder Neal A. Maxwell (ensign October 1980)
Patience is tied very closely to faith in our Heavenly Father. Actually, when we are unduly impatient, we are suggesting that we know what is best—better than does God. Or, at least, we are asserting that our timetable is better than his. Either way we are questioning the reality of God’s omniscience..." Elder Neal A. Maxwell (ensign October 1980)
When all is said and done, I think I will wonder why I couldn't have been more patient, more hopeful, and more faithful in the love and awarness that Heavenly Father has for me.
Recently I have been recieving blessing after blessing, and I think back to just a little while ago when I was struggling so much in what I was doing, doubtin
g if Heavenly Father really was listening to my heart and knew the pain I was feeling. I doubted whether or not prayer was really necessary or even worth it. Now, I see these blessings and I am not sure why or even if I deserve them.
g if Heavenly Father really was listening to my heart and knew the pain I was feeling. I doubted whether or not prayer was really necessary or even worth it. Now, I see these blessings and I am not sure why or even if I deserve them. I knew I needed to stay here for the summer and not move back home, but why? I wondered over and over again. It was the last thing I wanted to do, but I kept pretending like it was what I wanted to avoid the sadness of not being able to be there every second close to my family.
After being ever so patient (haha, feeling like giving up every second, doubting and wondering why I actually stayed :)) I finally see. I understand, as much as I can at this point.
In a talk given by Elder Maxwell called The Precious Promise (ensign April, 2004) I found this statement...
“Tribulation worketh patience; And patience, experience; and experience, hope” (Rom. 5:3–4), and hope brings more of the love of God. If you and I will meekly submit to “our light affliction,” whatever it is, this will lead later to 
a far greater “weight of glory” (2 Cor. 4:17).
a far greater “weight of glory” (2 Cor. 4:17).I know this is true more than ever now. I have seen so many miracles happen in my very own family in just this past week.
Saturday afternoon I was attended the baptism of my niece Haley. She is nothing less than a spiritual giant, and has a great responsibility due to her great knowledge of the gospel already. Just by being around this incredible eight year old you feel her spirit radiate the truth that she knows, and doesn't doubt. Her testimony will carry her and I'm sure many other around her throughout her entire life. How lucky I was to be able to witness her make that covenant with her Heavenly Father and be sealed his.
Sunday my sister Amber was asked by a lady who years ago was her young womens president to substitute for her in primary. Apparently my sister agreed, which almost made me choke on the grapes I was eating when I initially heard the news. When my mom told me it was hard to swallow the lump in my throat and pretend I didn't have goosebumps that covered every inch of my skin. She came on Sunday. I won't ever forget it.
Monday was a little hectic and the doubt started creeping in. HOW EASILY WE FORGET. I was busy rushing stephen to his physical therapy appointment and his mom back home from spending a night in the hospital for high blood pressure. I walked in to the front door to help his mom in only to find Johnathon on the floor breathing heavily and trying to tell us that he had taken all of his medication. This is the fifth time according to his mom that he has tried to commit suicide, but the first since he was released from prison in March. He was incarcerated for 7 1/2 years. We called 911 and he is still in the hospital recovering. I realized that it was such a blessing that I was able to serve this family, and be a support even when I was reluctant in the beginning.
After that whole situation I wasn't in the mood really to go to Family Home Evening. I went anyway for some reason I really can't identify. Five minutes or so after I arrived Mary (my roommate) called me into another room and asked if I would serve with her on the Relief Society Presidency. My mouth dropped open, and I just stared at her. I have been noticing her kneeling many times at the edge or her bed, and I know she has been trying to magnify her calling and also to choose counselors to help her. Could I doubt the answer she recieved to ask me? I let her know that I had never had a calling other than being a missionary, because I was inactive for so long before the mission. She told me that it was up to me, but she felt strongly to ask me. I have been wanting to serve and praying for opporunities for so long, how could I turn down such an amazing chance to serve? I just shook my head....in affirmation that is.
This summer has not even really begun (not only because it's the first week of June, but also because it is RAINING) and I have already begun to see the big picture. All I had to do was wait, but wait with patience I'm sure is more deserving of blessings.
"If left untried, those qualities, which are portable and eternal, would remain underdeveloped. There’s something about the isometrics that are involved when we’re putting off the natural man or the natural woman while striving to become the man or the woman of Christ. These isometrics are a blessing in disguise, though I grant you sometimes the blessing is well disguised.
As striving disciples, therefore, are we willing to be so mentored? Tutoringly, the Lord has said, “Ye cannot bear all things now; … I will lead you along” (D&C 78:18). He knows our bearing capacities. Though we ourselves may feel pushed to the breaking point, ere long, thanks to Him, these once-daunting challenges become receding milestones." Elder Maxwell (ensign April, 2004)
As striving disciples, therefore, are we willing to be so mentored? Tutoringly, the Lord has said, “Ye cannot bear all things now; … I will lead you along” (D&C 78:18). He knows our bearing capacities. Though we ourselves may feel pushed to the breaking point, ere long, thanks to Him, these once-daunting challenges become receding milestones." Elder Maxwell (ensign April, 2004)
...Continued...
We read in Mosiah about how the Lord simultaneously tries the patience of his people even as he tries their faith (see Mosiah 23:21). One is not only to endure—but to endure well and gracefully those things which the Lord “seeth fit to inflict upon [us]” (Mosiah 3:19), just as did a group of ancient American Saints who were beating unusual burdens but who submitted “cheerfully and with patience to all the will of the Lord” (Mosiah 24:15).
Paul, speaking to the Hebrews, brings us up short by writing that even after faithful disciples have “done the will of God, … ye have need of patience” (Heb. 10:36). How many times have good individuals done the right thing only to break, or wear away, under the subsequent stress, canceling out much of the value of what they have already so painstakingly done?
Sometimes that which we are doing is correct enough but simply needs to be persisted in—patiently—not for a minute or a moment but sometimes for years. Paul speaks of the marathon of life and how we must “run with patience the race that is set before us” (Heb. 12:1). Paul did not select the hundred-yard dash for his analogy!
The Lord has twice said: “And seek the face of the Lord always, that in patience ye may possess your souls, and ye shall have eternal life” (D&C 101:38, italics added; see also Luke 21:19). Could it be that only when our self-control has become total do we come into true possession of our own souls?
Patience is not only a companion of faith but is also a friend to free agency. Inside our impatience there is sometimes an ugly reality: We are plainly irritated and inconvenienced by the need to make allowances for the free agency of others. In our impatience, which is not the same thing as divine discontent, we would override others, even though it is obvious that our individual differences and preferences are so irretrievably enmeshed with each other that the only resolution which preserves free agency is for us to be patient and long-suffering with each other.
The passage of time is not, by itself, an automatic cure for bad choices. But often individuals, like the prodigal son, can “in process of time” come to their senses. The touching reunion of Jacob and Esau in the desert—so many years after their youthful rivalry, is a classic example of how generosity can replace animosity when truth is mixed with time (see Gen. 33).
When we are unduly impatient, however, we are, in effect, trying to hasten an outcome when acceleration would abuse agency. Enoch, brilliant, submissive, and spiritual, knew what it meant to see a whole city-culture advance in “process of time.” He could tell us so much about so many things, including patience.
Patience makes possible a personal spiritual symmetry which arises only from prolonged obedience within free agency!
There is also a dimension of patience which links it to a special reverence for life. Patience is a willingness, in a sense, to watch the unfolding purposes of God with a sense of wonder and awe—rather than pacing up and down within the cell of our circumstance.
Too much anxious opening of the oven door and the cake falls instead of rising! So it is with us. If we are always selfishly taking our temperature to see if we are happy, we won’t be.
When we are impatient, we are neither reverential nor reflective because we are too self-centered. Whereas faith and patience are companions, so are selfishness and impatience.
It is so easy to be confrontive without being informative; indignant without being intelligent; impulsive without being insightful! It is so easy to command others when we are not in control of ourselves.
I remember as a child going eagerly to the corner store for what we then called the “all-day sucker.” It would not have lasted all day under the best of usage, but it could last quite awhile. The trick was to resist the temptation to bite into it, to learn to savor rather than to crunch and chew. The same savoring was needed with a precious square of a milk chocolate bar. Make the treat last; especially in depression times!
In life, however, even patiently stretching out sweetness is sometimes not enough; in certain situations, enjoyment must actually be deferred. A patient willingness to defer dividends is a hallmark of individual maturity. It is, parenthetically, a hallmark of free nations that their citizens can discipline themselves today for a better tomorrow. Yet America is in trouble (as are other nations) because patient persistence in a wise course of public policy now appears to be so difficult to attain. Too many impatient politicians buy today’s votes with tomorrow’s inflation. But back to the personal relevance of patience, which, among many things, permits us to deal more effectively with the unevenness of life’s experiences.
Paul, speaking to the Hebrews, brings us up short by writing that even after faithful disciples have “done the will of God, … ye have need of patience” (Heb. 10:36). How many times have good individuals done the right thing only to break, or wear away, under the subsequent stress, canceling out much of the value of what they have already so painstakingly done?
Sometimes that which we are doing is correct enough but simply needs to be persisted in—patiently—not for a minute or a moment but sometimes for years. Paul speaks of the marathon of life and how we must “run with patience the race that is set before us” (Heb. 12:1). Paul did not select the hundred-yard dash for his analogy!
The Lord has twice said: “And seek the face of the Lord always, that in patience ye may possess your souls, and ye shall have eternal life” (D&C 101:38, italics added; see also Luke 21:19). Could it be that only when our self-control has become total do we come into true possession of our own souls?
Patience is not only a companion of faith but is also a friend to free agency. Inside our impatience there is sometimes an ugly reality: We are plainly irritated and inconvenienced by the need to make allowances for the free agency of others. In our impatience, which is not the same thing as divine discontent, we would override others, even though it is obvious that our individual differences and preferences are so irretrievably enmeshed with each other that the only resolution which preserves free agency is for us to be patient and long-suffering with each other.
The passage of time is not, by itself, an automatic cure for bad choices. But often individuals, like the prodigal son, can “in process of time” come to their senses. The touching reunion of Jacob and Esau in the desert—so many years after their youthful rivalry, is a classic example of how generosity can replace animosity when truth is mixed with time (see Gen. 33).
When we are unduly impatient, however, we are, in effect, trying to hasten an outcome when acceleration would abuse agency. Enoch, brilliant, submissive, and spiritual, knew what it meant to see a whole city-culture advance in “process of time.” He could tell us so much about so many things, including patience.
Patience makes possible a personal spiritual symmetry which arises only from prolonged obedience within free agency!
There is also a dimension of patience which links it to a special reverence for life. Patience is a willingness, in a sense, to watch the unfolding purposes of God with a sense of wonder and awe—rather than pacing up and down within the cell of our circumstance.
Too much anxious opening of the oven door and the cake falls instead of rising! So it is with us. If we are always selfishly taking our temperature to see if we are happy, we won’t be.
When we are impatient, we are neither reverential nor reflective because we are too self-centered. Whereas faith and patience are companions, so are selfishness and impatience.
It is so easy to be confrontive without being informative; indignant without being intelligent; impulsive without being insightful! It is so easy to command others when we are not in control of ourselves.
I remember as a child going eagerly to the corner store for what we then called the “all-day sucker.” It would not have lasted all day under the best of usage, but it could last quite awhile. The trick was to resist the temptation to bite into it, to learn to savor rather than to crunch and chew. The same savoring was needed with a precious square of a milk chocolate bar. Make the treat last; especially in depression times!
In life, however, even patiently stretching out sweetness is sometimes not enough; in certain situations, enjoyment must actually be deferred. A patient willingness to defer dividends is a hallmark of individual maturity. It is, parenthetically, a hallmark of free nations that their citizens can discipline themselves today for a better tomorrow. Yet America is in trouble (as are other nations) because patient persistence in a wise course of public policy now appears to be so difficult to attain. Too many impatient politicians buy today’s votes with tomorrow’s inflation. But back to the personal relevance of patience, which, among many things, permits us to deal more effectively with the unevenness of life’s experiences.
I love this particular part of his discourse because it tells things in such detail and in phrases that really penetrate the desire to ponder on and evaluate my level of tolerance and patience daily.
It humbled me, but instead of summarizing my thoughts and feelings I will let it speak for itself.
I will leave here my testimony that I know patience is a divine quality that is perfectly possessed by our Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ. I know that it would only help us in the worthy process of progression to become every day more and more like them. I know the book of mormon and the bible will give us further knowledge and help us to develop faith in the things that are to come to us through patience in Heavenly Father. Iknow christ lives and is ever so patient with me.
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