I don’t think there’s anyone who wouldn’t love some more patience! Including me! It’s near the top of my goals list.
We know deep down that we need to cultivate more patience in our lives, but it’s a huge challenge. The ability to wait well, without expressing frustration or irritation is no easy task. Especially when life constantly serves up reasons to be aggravated. Regardless of difficulty, patience is necessary for us to live a peaceful life.
I Actually Lost Time By Trying to Save It
I recently found myself stuck behind an extremely slow driver—like infuriatingly slow! (Full disclosure: The road is where my patience is tested the most!) I moved into the left lane to get around this person, knowing full well I had a right turn coming at the next intersection. “Plenty of time,” I thought. “This dude’s movin’ like turtle with a broken leg.”
As I began passing, of course, the car sped up. (Seriously, bruh?) So I was unable to pass them before reaching the intersection. With cars behind me in both lanes, my usual right turn was out of the question.
So I decided to go straight and take a different route. “Might be kinda fun to shake up the routine a bit,” I thought.
However, I didn’t realize this new route was ridiculously filled with red lights! And it even had TWO school zones in it—complete with police officers stopping traffic to let cars out of the school parking lots. So instead of saving the time I thought I’d lose stuck behind the slow driver, my impatience added ten to fifteen extra minutes to my drive! I lost time by trying to save it!
Whether Big or Small, Impatience Always Comes With A Cost
I know I’ve got some relatives out there! Many of you can relate! You’ve seen impatience rear its ugly head when something takes longer than you expected, and you have to wait. I can’t think of anyone who would honestly say, “I love waiting!” But waiting is an unavoidable part of life.
We’re always waiting on something. In those moments, the temptation is to act impatiently rather than waiting patiently, but it comes at a price. We think we’ll get what we want sooner, avoiding delays while snubbing the poor chumps still standing by, unsavvy enough to find a loophole like we did. But don’t get it twisted. Acting impatiently never delivers as promised.
What Does Impatience Actually Cost?
Have you ever stopped to think about what impatience truly costs you? The bill can be staggering! It’s something none of us can really afford. Let’s look at some of the ways impatience can cost us in life.
Impatience Costs You The Best Opportunities - An unwillingness to wait could result in hasty decisions. Have you ever quickly taken a job offer you didn’t love because the right one hadn’t materialized, and you weren’t sure it would? Or perhaps you’ve purchased a car you weren’t totally thrilled about because you hated your current vehicle and you were tired of looking for the perfect one?
Acting impatiently will cause the best things to slip through our fingers. We end up settling for just okay, fine, or—worst of all—
something horrible.
Impatience Costs You Relationships - The people around us can feel our impatience, especially when it’s directed at them. We think we’re hiding it—masked behind
body language (deep sighs foot tapping, face rubbing, head shaking, etc.), or in what we think are subtle comments (“are you done YET?” “You STILL haven’t finished that?”). But they feel it. People do not appreciate being treated as inconvenient obstacles in our way. They’ll resist and rebel. Relationships are damaged, bridges broken, and peace is lost.
Impatience Costs You Mentally -
Impatience is stressful. “Hurry, hurry, hurry; I need this RIGHT NOW!” Living impatiently is living frustrated and living angry—emotionally unstable if everything around us isn’t perfect. All of this takes its toll. Then, after treating people poorly, remorse over our actions and how to rectify them can tie our mind in knots. And if we’ve damaged an important relationship beyond repair, the regret could be crushing.
Impatience Costs You And Others Spiritually – When you think about it, impatience is really a lack of faith. We feel we need to act because God is taking too long. We’re not sure He’s going to do what we want, so we take matters into our own hands. “But without faith it’s impossible to please God.” (
Hebrews 11:6) So when we’re impatient, we’re not in faith, and God is not pleased.
When we’re impatient, we’re not like God. (
2. Peter 3:9) He is patient with us. How dare we not be patient with others?
When we’re impatient, we don’t represent Christ to the world like we should (
Colossians 3:12). We’re told to walk in love (
John 13:34), and impatience is the exact opposite. In fact, when the Bible describes what love is, “patient” is first on the list! (
I Corinthians 13:4-8).
Patience is also one of the Fruits Of The Spirit (
Galatians 5:22-23). Our patience can draw people to Jesus. But when we’re impatient it’s easy for them to dismiss Christianity. “I knew it was fake.” There’s no room for impatience in the lives of Believers. It could cost us our walk with God, our witness to others, and it might even keep someone else out of Heaven!
Impatience Costs You Financially - Hasty money decisions are literally costly! Have you ever been presented with “the deal of a lifetime”—but it’s only available for the next hour? You’re desperate not to lose out, so you buy something that you realized later you shouldn’t have. Or you rush into a business deal or an investment that’s too good to be true, but again, you don’t want to miss out. Most scams force us to act quickly with our money. If we have to rush—which is moving impatiently—chances are it won’t be the right move.
Think about the tests you crammed for at the last minute versus the ones you took the time to study for in advance. Vastly different results I bet. (You may even remember some of the material from a quality study to this very day!). When we simply want to quickly get something over with, we rob ourselves of the true experience of it, which is where the growth is found.
Impatience Costs You Physically - “I know I’m flying down the freeway at almost 90, but I gotta send this text right now!” It’s not hard to see how impatience like this might impact our physical health, and the health of others! We put safety on the back-burner to get what we want quickly. Whether through a car wreck, slipping and falling, or some other type of accident, our chances of hurting ourselves skyrocket when we’re impatient.
How To Keep Impatience From Robbing You
Impatience can be tricky and deceptive. It’ll jump on you before you even realize it—if you recognize it at all! Since impatience comes with a high price, we must learn to spot it, and then fight to keep it from stealing our future. But how?
Pray For Patience - First and foremost,
ask God to help you. If you’re brave enough to do this, know that testing is around the corner. Patience is only built by trials (
James 1:2-4). Once you pray, expect God to allow situations into your life to help you build your patience muscles. It won’t be easy, but the great news is, since you have His help, you CAN be patient in whatever comes your way.
Learn Your Impatience Triggers - Spend some time studying yourself. Pay attention to the things that ignite impatience within you. If sitting in traffic is your trigger, develop strategies to help you during those times. Perhaps you can leave when traffic is lighter? Or maybe you can listen to calming music behind the wheel? Become a student of yourself and do what you can to snuff out the things that trigger impatience in you.
Change Your Attitude - Change the way you think about things. (
Romans 12:2) Make a decision that not only CAN you be patient, you WILL be patient. If you think you can, then you can! Remind yourself that you’re not too important to wait for a minute or two. When you sense impatience rising up, change the way you think about the situation you’re in. Do you really have to get it done right now? Decide that if you have to wait, you’re going to wait well. And be grateful. Count your blessings. (
Philippians 4:8)
Plan Your Patience And Make The Most Of The Moment - It’s not realistic to think you’ll never have to wait. Waiting is inevitable. If you’re going to wait anyway, how can you make the most of the moment and get something out of your waiting time?
Perhaps you need to always carry
a great book with you? Or maybe listening to a great audiobook—like
Exactly How It’s `Posed to Be—can help you maximize the moment. Could you have a game on your phone that makes waiting easier? Whatever your thing is, have some activities at the ready to make the most of every moment.
Take Care Of Yourself - When you’re excessively
tired or
hungry, bad decisions are likely. Make changes to your life to allow yourself proper rest. Make sure you’re eating healthy, nourishing food on a regular basis.
Don’t fill yourself full of junk.
Get regular exercise so that you feel good about your physical appearance. When you like the way you look, you’re likely to slow down so others can appreciate what you’ve put together. (I have no scientific evidence that is true, but it makes sense!)
When you stop and think about impatience (which takes a bit of patience to do, by the way) you can see what a thief it is. It often goes undetected, masquerading as a “pet peeve” or a random annoyance to hide the severity of its mission to rob our lives. Decide today that you’ll take steps to keep impatience from costing you anything more. It won’t be easy, but the payoff—an undisturbed, frustration-free life, filled with peace and calm—is totally worth it.
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