“…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. Put another way, 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 will not 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; so easy to be indignant without being intelligent; so easy to be impulsive without being insightful.
…In life 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 maturity… the personal relevance of patience…permits us to deal effectively with the unevenness of life’s experiences… the seeming flat periods of life give us a blessed chance to reflect upon what is past as well as to be readied for some stirring climbs ahead. Instead of grumbling and murmuring, we should be consolidating and reflecting, which would not be possible if life were an uninterrupted sequence of fantastic scenery, confrontive events, and exhilarating conversation.
Patience helps us to use rather than to protest, these seeming flat periods of life, becoming filled with quiet wonder over the past and with anticipation for that which may lie ahead, instead of demeaning the flatness through which we may be passing at the time.
We should savor even the seemingly ordinary times, for life cannot be made up all of kettledrums and crashing cymbals. There must be some flutes and violins. Living cannot be all crescendo; there must be some dynamic contrast.
Clearly, without patience we will learn less in life. We will see less, we will feel less; we will hear less. Ironically, “rush” and “more” usually mean “less.” The pressure of “now,” time and again, go against the grain of the gospel with its eternalism.”~Elder Neil A. Maxwell of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles, part of a devotional address ‘Patience’ given at Brigham Young University on 27 November 1979, published in ‘The Inexhaustible Gospel’, p.86-87
