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Wednesday, December 28, 2005

Patience

Lord, grant me the serenity to accept the things that I cannot change, the courage to change the things that I can, and the wisdom to know the difference.

Is patience really as much of a virtue as it is often made out to be, or is it often used as an excuse, perhaps unwittingly, to try to avoid having to deal with things in our lives, to make decisions and to actually use the good sense that God has given us to bring things into being?

Do we perhaps worry how we may appear to others as impatient in making some choices? On the other hand, are caution, prayer and contemplative thought not warranted when making significant decisions?

Hmmm.

6 comments:

Jo said...

indeed very interesting. Personally I have very little place for patiance. No I don't want instant gratification, but when it comes to major decisions, I normally think about it and pray about it and then roll with it.

On the same question, what is the point of regrets?

Joe Zollars

Michael said...

Indeed.

I have often heard the prayer, "Dear Lord, grant me patience, and give it to me now!", used in jest at how we often lack patience, even when we think we have it. I know that patience is better than regret, which comes with hindsight. Joe is right. We ought not to dwell on the past, but rather, learn from it. Still, we could perhaps avoid so many mistakes if we just waited a little longer before making that decision.

It's just that I'm prone to using that as an excuse for complacency.

sigh

Anonymous said...

People have tried all my life to teach me what they call "patience". In practice, that means "do everything I tell you =immediately= and without question." I have not learned this kind of patience yet, and I will soon reach my scripturally allotted span of threescore years and ten.

The kind of patience needed in my little town is the ability of folks to stand patiently in a queue and be courteous to the store clerks when they finally reach the head of the queue.... will that ever happen? I always seem to be right behind the person in the queue who has finally "blown his stack", so the store clerk is still furious, hurt, and sometimes nearly in tears, by the time I am able to make my purchase. I spend a lot of time trying to soothe the feelings of store clerks....

Oh well....

Leetle M.

Michael said...

Well it has perhaps become apparent by now, that the issue about which I was wondering was whether or not to agree to have my baptism brought forward. I came up with all manner of reasons why I shouldn't do it until I finally accepted that I was just making excuses.

So here we are. :-s

Anonymous said...

Hehe! First step in becoming Orthodox through and through is to learn that there really are no excuses any more once we're =in= the Church!

Actually, it makes life a lot easier after you get used to giving up the search for excuses.

(((Michael)))

Leetle M.
PS--Carrot sticks in V-8 juice are nice, too. :)

Michael said...

Hugs right back atcha, Leetle M! :-)

You are right, of course.

M x