Welcome to Three-Peat Tuesday! Patience is a Virtue
Building from my recent book UNBEATABLE! Seven Pillars of Personal Excellence, each blog will contain three P’s: Pillar, Principle and Practical, all geared towards nourishing you on your personal and spiritual growth journey.
Pillar: The Power of Patience
“You must ruthlessly eliminate hurry from your life”-Dallas Willard
Principle: Patience Promotes Productivity
Finally!
This was likely the word uttered across the globe on Saturday November 7, 2020 when the results of the US presidential election were announced. Four days of counting is what it took to reach that magical number of 270 electoral college votes.
It could only take something like an election for, arguably, the world’s most powerful office-holder, to rival COVID-19 for global headlines. It was a gripping, fascinating week of vote counting. Admittedly, it was also quite a challenge to the patience of both Democratic and Republican supporters as they awaited the outcome.
It is here that I wish to commend those in charge of counting as well as various media houses that called for patience. The leaders managing the ballots sang a recurring theme of getting things right, however long it took. That was powerful, necessary and, in many respects, counter-cultural.
We hate waiting. The election officials made us wait. They did not give in to external influences or internal noises. Getting it right was more important than getting it done quickly. This is the message of the ancients in Proverbs 19:2-
“Being excited about something is not enough. You must also know what you are doing. Don’t rush into something, or you might do it wrong.”
When we’re rushing, we give ourselves a great chance to mess things up. Whether or not you closely followed the US election, don’t forget to take a page out of the counters’ book. They were spot on when they made the world wait.
Practical: Prioritizing Patience
Eliminate hurry from your life. Slow down. Ironically, this could make you more productive.
If you were inspired by this blog, please consider sharing it with one other person today. To learn more about these pillars of personal excellence, read UNBEATABLE! which is now available on Amazon in print and as an e-book.
This Post Has 10 Comments
You are on point here,Tyrone when you say that when we rush we give ourselves a great chance to mess things up. This has been so true in my life. The more I rush and don’t give myself time to think things through or pray things through, the bigger mess I make. The older I get, however, the more I realize rushing into anything is not worth it, be it rushing to give a response to someone or rushing to make a major decision that could affect me in the long term or worse yet affect a wider circle of people . Even God is never in a hurry, so why should I be. Great reminder for me. Patience is truly a virtue.
Thank you Ronke. I can relate to the inherent risks associated with hurrying and yes, I’ve made some blunders in the past by being too hasty. I’m so glad for the opportunity to learn from the past and make progress for the future.
Really appreciate the analogy of the recent elections, and the confirmation that “haste makes waste”. If there is any benefit in growing older is that my physical limitations (and, I have to admit, mental, in some cases) have forced me to slow down, whether I like it or not. The result? I make wiser decisions. Thanks, Tyrone
You are so right Colin. So often, slowing down leads to wiser choices. Thank you.
I have been more focus on getting things done quickly too often. I have been working on thinking and operating differently. This point is so important because in striving to do it quickly, a lot more time is lost doing it over. So thank you for sharing this. A healthy reminder for me and greatly appreciated.
Thanks for sharing about your journey Michelle.
Thanks for this reminder Tyrone . Impatience is deeply embedded in my flesh. I need to see it more readily before falling into the urighteous behaviour.
Thank you for your openness Hope. I can relate. There’s already a victory when we can identify our growth areas.
Thanks for this post Tyrone. Too often I feel the unpleasantness of impatience welling up inside of me especially when I feel like I have more to do that there is time to do it. Lurking around in my mind is the thought of some bad consequence of A, B or C not getting done now – mostly as it relates to work but also at home. However, in looking back, I realize that rushing impairs my ability to see clearly and the world did not stop because something was not done “right this minute” or even at all (imagine that!). Slowing down will take lots of prayer on my part but it is something I am working on with God’s help.
Thank you for sharing these thoughts, Janelle. Living through the lens of patience has become one of the biggest challenges of modern-day living. At the same time, it is likely to become one of the most rewarding ways to live as well.