Monday, July 30, 2012

Patience and Love

I have had a few hiccups along my way since I have been back from Australia and overall, I think I have handled them as well as I can. I have to wait and see how everything that is out of my control begins to settle but in the meantime, I will focus on what I can do and with a little faith, patience, and trust I think everything will be able to work itself out.  So the plan for now is to do what I can here... which at the moment is a lot of studying... and then pray and hope that everything will work itself out over there and just be ready to adapt and change to whatever the outcome may be.  And I don't think I am changing myself to be someone who I'm not... That's not what I am saying.

Patience is something that is tightly interwoven with receiving answers to prayer and so I feel if we understand how prayer works then we can understood more about how patience works.  Prayer is in a way humble because it is a chance for us to not only acknowledge someone's hand in our lives that is greater than we are (basically God) but it also gives us a chance to continue to ask for his guidance and help because we are admitting to ourselves and to Him that we need it.  And when we understand our relationship that He is Our Father and we are His children then that helps to make it more natural and instinctive.  The object of prayer isn't to change His will but to understand His will for us and to ask for blessings that are conditional upon our request.  Blessings such patience for instance.

The lessons I learn from all that is that we aren't trying to change someone else or force them to do something just because we ask them.  Patience is more having a desire or a goal which typically won't be anything more than that until we act on it.  And if we feel like it is a good thing and then we have to have faith and continue to pursue it and pursue it.  Patience is understanding that sometimes the way that we move forward is actually by doing good things as we wait for others to make the choices necessary for us to also progress.  If we have gone too far or are moving faster than what is necessary  we may just need to slow down for a while and let everything settle and everyone figure out what they really want.  We can't change the will of others just like we can't change the will of God.  But we are working together, we can accept what their choices are and determine a way to come together so we are moving forward as one.

This may seem obvious to those who have already achieved this virtue and it even sounds obvious... You can't force patience.  And in all honesty, I don't know anyone who would really want to.  All we can do is do our part and continue to love the people around us and continue to appreciate them and the many other blessings that we have been given.  And I know that right now, I have a lot to be grateful for.

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