This morning one of my older kids asked me if I thought I could teach Macie to read this summer.
“Yes. I think I could. I have confidence I could do that,” I replied. “Do you think YOU could teach her to read this summer?”
She informed me that she wasn’t sure she could because she doesn’t have much patience. So naturally, I welcomed her to the club.
This led to a brief conversation about patience, how we learn it, when we learn it, and how it’s a sign of maturity.
It reminded me of a phrase I hear all too often when people tell me why they can’t homeschool their children:
“I don’t have the patience for that,” they say.
Well, let me tell you something. And I say this will all the gentleness and love in the world…
Nobody does.
Nobody has the patience to teach their children day in and day out for 18 years minimum.
Nobody has the patience to get up with their baby every night for months and months on end (sometimes years) to tend to their cries.
Nobody has the patience to rise every single morning and face the day with their special needs child, lovingly caring for them without any end in sight.
Nobody has the patience to potty train a rebellious child.
Nobody has the patience to deal with frustrating neighbors who are seemingly bent on destroying the people around them.
Nobody has the patience to walk into work again, knowing that they will face ridicule and be ostracized for their faith.
Nobody has the patience to spend every day on the road, dealing with people who seem to have never taken a driver’s test and don’t understand that the highways are a shared environment.
Nobody has the patience to tenderly care for their aging parent who is struggling with dementia, never knowing what might frighten them next or what will be the next thing to slip from their memory.
No. Nobody innately has the patience to ANY of those things, because patience is a learned trait. And in my experience, it’s generally learned through trials.
So friends, can we all agree to stop saying “no” to things just because we don’t have the patience for them? Patience is not something ANYONE has…until it is learned.
We know patience is a virtue. And we know learning it is hard. But let’s start saying “yes” more anyway. Because life is about service. And serving others builds patience.