Lenten Improvements - Patience

From Improve: Now is the Acceptable Time! Distributed by Archconfraternity of Christian Mothers.

Patience...

"Don't you have great respect for a patient person? Doesn't another's calmness in a difficult situation stir something deep down in your heart? Saint Augustine calls patience 'that virtue which teaches us to endure with a quiet mind.' everything that happens contrary to our will.

Annoyances

There are many things that happened contrary to our will and cause the loss of
patience--tripping on a step, missing a bus or an airplane, congested traffic, rain
on washday, a pesky fly, a barking dog, a ringing telephone, a crying baby, a
talkative companion--all these little things, along with an entire catalog of
other annoyances, cause the loss of patience in some people. If by losing our patience we could change such disturbances there might be some justification for impatience, but the bus we missed keeps moving away from us no matter what we may and a ringing phone jangles on in spite of our feelings.

Results of Impatience

A lawyer who loses his temper usually loses his case; an impatience doctor may lose a patient; a baseball pitcher who loses his control loses the game; an angry boxer swings wild and loses his bout, and a mother who loses her temper, like a piece of steel that has lost its temper, is useless for the moment. Parents, executives and superiors who continually lose their patience undermine their own authority, and those under their case lose all respect for them. Impatience begets anger and anger leads to abusive speech, quarrelling, violence, revenge and even murder. Uncontrolled tempers, like the uncontrolled elements of fire, wind and water, spell destruction".

Tomorrow, we will touch on aids and safeguards against impatience.