Patience

This is a bit how I felt this week. It was a rather hard week where nothing seemed to go right. A job I interviewed for wasn't to be. School this semester is also not to be, as it was decided, after two weeks of attending classes, that I was actually a non-resident and I could not afford to pay the much costlier tuition. And don't even get me started on my current living condition, or the lack of funds, and the carless-ness. So yeah, I was feeling a bit deflated.

But more than that, I was feeling very impatient. I moved back to Utah for a reason, and saw going to school as a fulfillment of that. Even though everything else wasn't quite on track, at least that was. I've never been one to have much patience; I go running once and expect to see immediate results. So being told that I'd have to be patient for at least another semester, maybe two, it was more than I could take. My impatience immediately started to creep in on every other aspect of my life, and I wondered why, at twenty-six, my life was not at all where I wanted it to be.

Before I tackle that question, let me present you with a great talk from Neal A. Maxwell titled simply, "Patience." If ever there was a talk aimed specifically for me, this is it.

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.

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.

I'll be working on this virtue for some time, I'm sure. In the meantime, I hope to exercise enough patience and faith to know that if I do all that I can on my end, help will come and things will work for my benefit.