Patience

 “Patience is not simply the ability to wait - it's how we behave while we're waiting.”

― Joyce Meyer 

How many times have we claimed to be patient but we fidget and we wallow in our righteousness demanding to know exactly when our patience was going to pay off. Is that really be a patient person?

My patience has been tested time and again by my students who seem to know exactly how far they can push me. I had always thought I was showing patience until I had a student come to me and ask why I seemed so agitated. I told him I was patiently waiting for everyone to finish with a simple task -- getting there books out and turning to page 118. It then hit me, was I truly being patient? I was pacing back in forth in front of the class, picking up my book and setting it down, picking up my notes and then setting them down. I was never simply standing quietly and waiting. I was like a caged animal ready to pounce on the students who did not right away comply with my request.

It takes strength to fully understand that to be a patient person, you have to have a certain amount of peace within your soul. I lacked that peace when I was in the classroom last school year. It was not until the very last few weeks that I truly understood that the caged energy I displayed when "patiently" waiting for my students to follow directions was portraying a very impatient person ready to criticize their work.

This summer I have been focusing on patience and sitting quietly and displaying an aura of calmness and quietness. Patience is simply accepting that we must wait and cannot hurry the process no matter how much we fidget or try to push it along. It took a high school student to open my eyes to my impatient behavior. Are you a patient person or are you a person who thinks that you are patient?