From a previous post, * wisdom from yesteryear, Neal A. Maxwell wrote:
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 time again, go against the grain of the gospel with its eternalism.
Continuing: “There is also in patience a greater opportunity for that discernment which sorts out things that matter most from things that matter least. The mealtime episode of the Savior in the home of Mary and Martha is an example. Anxious, impatient Martha focused on getting food on the table while Mary wisely chose “the good part”—companionship and conversation instead of calories—a good choice, the Savior said, which would not be taken from her.
In our approach to life, patience also helps us to realize that, while we may be ready to move on, having had enough of a particular learning experience, our continued presence is often needed as a part of the learning environment of others. Patience is thus closely connected with two central attributes of Christianity—love and humility. Paul said to the saints at Thessalonica, “Be patient toward all men”—clearly a part of keeping the second great commandment (1 Thessalonians 5:14).
The patient person assumes that what others have to say is worth listening to. A patient person is not so chronically eager to put forth his or her own ideas. In true humility, we do some waiting on others. We value them for what they say and what they have to contribute. Patience and humility are special friends.
Since our competition in life, as Elder Boyd K. Packer has perceptively said, is solely with our old self, we ought to be free, you and I, as members of the Church, from jealousies and anxieties of the world which go with interpersonal competition. Very importantly, it is patience, when combined with love, which permits us “in process of time” to detoxify our disappointments. Patience and love take the radioactivity out of our resentments. These are neither small nor occasional needs in most of our lives.
Further the patient person can better understand how there are circumstances when, if our hearts are set too much upon the things of this world, they must be broken—but for our sakes and not merely as a demonstration of divine power. But it takes real patience in such circumstances to wait for the later vindication of our trust in the Lord.
Therefore, if we use the process of time well, it can cradle us as we develop patient humility. Keats tenderly expressed: “Time, that aged nurse, rocked me to patience” (John Bartlett, Familiar Quotations, 14th ed. [Boston: Little, Brown and Company, 1968], p.580). Clearly, patience so cradles us when we are in the midst of suffering. Paul, who suffered much, observed in his epistle to the Hebrews: “Now no chastening for the present seemeth to be joyous, but grievous: nevertheless afterward it yieldth the peaceable fruit of righteousness unto them which are exercised thereby” (Hebrews 12:11)
Previous post to this. . .* wisdom of yesteryear, Neal A. Maxwell
~ Neal A. Maxwell, The Inexhaustible Gospel, (Provo, Utah) 86-87
“from Speeches 218 UPB, Brigham Young University, Provo, Utah 84602, 2004)
