When you order something online, you often have the option for standard shipping (which will take a bit longer), or you can pay extra and expedite how quickly your item gets to you.
The choice is yours.
I haven’t always been the best when it comes to patience—just ask the University Park red light camera people, and they can back me up on that one. It’s difficult to wait for some things. I know waiting is important sometimes, but patience isn’t only about waiting. People will often throw the quote out to you about it being a virtue and whatnot (whether they always know what that means when they say it is an entirely different conversation), but I also think it’s more than that. I think patience is knowing how to react and respond in a situation when you might want to be rash or explode.
Whenever I think of patience, I think of my mom. I took off work one day last week, and I went to visit her at her school that day. She teaches kindergarten, a job that requires a really special kind of human. Well, my mom is definitely that type of person. As I sat there and watched the way she interacts with her kids and the way they listen to her and how much they respect her, I started to think about how she acts in such a patient manner in every single area of her life, and I couldn’t help but wish that I were more like her in that regard.
When I was a teacher, I learned a lot about patience with other people. I feel that I grew in that area during those seven years of my life, and I am not one to let my temper explode. In fact, it really takes a lot now to get me truly angry, and I’m thankful to my mom and my teaching career for that. But I can’t say that I apply that kind of attitude in every aspect of my life.
There’s a verse in the Bible that says “Patient endurance is what you need now,” and even though it was written to the Hebrews, I like to think I’m meant to read it—because patient endurance is what I need a lot of the time. I think endurance is the perfect word to follow because when you’re in that period of uncertainty, it certainly can feel like a trial you’re having to persevere through for however long it might be. And the whole not-knowing part of it all brings an entirely different element into the patience picture: trust. It’s a time when you have to trust that, even if what you want to happen doesn’t exactly happen, everything will be as it should in the end. It’s kind of like when you’re waiting to hear back from a job or a school to see if you got it or were accepted—you aren’t completely sure of what’s going to happen, but you have to accept the outcome and trust that it’s the right one.
And I think the wisdom gained from patience means knowing when you shouldn’t wait for something. There are some things you simply shouldn’t sit back and expect to come your way without you actually taking leaps of faith toward them. It can be tough to know when to wait and when to jump, but I think there are certain moments when the heart just knows exactly what to do—and you can either follow it or let those chances fade.
I think about Rapunzel in the movie Tangled (yes, I’m comparing parts of real life to a Disney movie) and how she waited in that stupid tower for so many years. But then an opportunity came along for her to escape and find life and love outside of the tower, and she took it because, even though she had some doubts and anxieties, she knew it was absolutely the thing she needed to do to be who she needed to be and to be with her person.
Sometimes you need to sit in a restaurant for a really long time until your steak dinner finally arrives and is delicately placed in front of you. But then there are times when all you really want is a cheeseburger from the drive-thru at Whataburger, which you’ll get a lot faster.
It’s all about knowing in your heart what is right and following it without hesitation.
