“Endurance enlightens the mind and soul.”
Patience is a means not only to inner peace but outer peace. It is the ability to endure situations of all kinds and to remain level-headed. Patience out of balance can appear two ways. One extreme displays frustration, rage, and aggravation, while the other extreme displays apathy and indifference. Patience displayed in balance helps relationships and situations through rough spots and promotes healthy growth.
When you are in a situation and about to lose your temper, recite the memory phrase in your mind before you react.
Plan to be early for all appointments this week and bring a book for the wait.
When frustrated in traffic, have a favorite song handy for cue-up and enjoy the moment.
If you are ready to lose your patience with a person, stop the seeds of impatience and say something kind to that person.
Meditation
Daily Questions
What were the "seeds" that started to erode your patience today?
Think of several good things that happened today. What was your reaction to them in contrast to your moments of challenge?
If you lost your patience today, is this something that you have lost your patience over previously?
If you were on the verge of losing your patience but didn't, what did you employ that worked?
Were you able to use prayer or meditation to suffer through the circumstances?
If you lost your patience today, describe how it happened.
What causes you to lose patience most often?
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Quotables
"Woe to the pampered one who has never been trained to be patient. Either today or in the future he is destined to sip from the cup of affliction." -- Rabbi M. M. Leffin, Cheshbon ha-Nefesh
"Slowness to anger [shows] much understanding, but a short-spirited person elevates foolishness." -- Proverbs 14:29 Stone Tanach
"The key to everything is patience. You get the chicken by hatching the egg, not by smashing it." -- Arnold H. Glasgow
"Patience is the ability to idle your motor when you feel like stripping your gears." -- Barbara Johnson
"Patience is not passive; on the contrary, it is active; it is concentrated strength." -- Edward G. Bulwer-Lytton
"Perseverance prevails even against Heaven." -- Talmud, Sanhedrin 105a
"A hot-tempered man stirs up strife, but the slow to anger calms a dispute." -- Mishlei 15:18
"Experience has taught me this, that we undo ourselves by impatience. Misfortunes have their life and their limits, their sickness and their health." -- Michel de Montaigne
"I waited patiently for the LORD; and He inclined to me and heard my cry." -- Tehillim 40:1
"Brothers and sisters, as an example of patience in the face of suffering, take the prophets who spoke in the name of the LORD." -- James 5:10
"Be completely humble and gentle; be patient, bearing with one another in love." -- Ephesians 4:2