How Practicing Patience Can Improve Our Relationships

 How do you react when you are inconvenienced? How do you handle annoyances? Every day we are faced with new challenges that test our endurance and patience. Through patience we have the opportunity to express love for imperfect people and for life despite all its challenges and difficulties.

Patience is a passive demonstration of love. It is not what you do as much as how you respond to people or situations. Patience is…calmly enduring an inconvenience, not reacting impulsively when a decision needs to be made, hoping in the midst of opposition, staying faithful and believing despite delay, submitting without resistance when it is the best option, and gracefully accepting hardships that cannot be changed.
 
There is a calm quality to patience. When you are patient, you are in no hurry. You are able to wait for as long as is necessary. You persist in believing without giving up. Your temper is under control. And you are not disturbed by inconveniences and annoyances.


Patience communicates love. It says:

I love you despite your imperfections.

I am willing to wait because some things are worth waiting for.

I will go out of my way if it will help you.

I will allow you to do things at your own pace, not mine.

I will think things through before making a decision.

I will not give up on you; I believe in you.

I will accept you the way you are and not try to change you.

I will respect your beliefs and opinions although they differ from mine.

Patience clearly communicates love in a very special way. Patience is commonly said to be a virtue. It is a quality that can be developed and practiced by every one of us.


Reflection:
 
How understanding and tolerant am I with people in my life?

Do I persist in the face of difficulties or setbacks? Explain.

How do I manage times of delay and waiting?

What tries my patience more than anything else? How do I respond?

What do I expect from others that keeps me from being patient with them?

On a scale of 0 to 10, with 10 being “completely” and 0 being “not at all” how would I rate my overall level of patience?

Is there someone in my life that I need to be more patient with? What can I do differently?

Empowering Thoughts & Affirmations:

Life is filled with obstacles and imperfect people that hinder our plans, slow us down, and annoy us.

♥  I can accept life as being imperfect.
♥  I can allow myself and others to have flaws.

Our patience will achieve more than our force. ~Edmund Burke

Patience is bitter, but its fruit is sweet. ~Jean-Jacques Rousseau

Patience with others is Love, Patience with self is Hope, Patience with God is Faith. ~Adel Bestavros

Patience and perserverence have a magical effect before which difficulties disappear and obstacles vanish. ~John Quincy Adams


CLICK HERE for free printable worksheet


Taken from 10 Keys to Happy & Loving Relationships Part 3 (Love is Patient) by Krystal Kuehn



Copyright © 2006, 2010 Krystal Kuehn, All Rights Reserved. New Day Counseling Center.



Krystal Kuehn, MA, LPC, LLP, NCC is a psychotherapist, author, teacher & musician. She is the cofounder of New Day Counseling, a family marriage counseling and adolescent child therapy center, BeHappy4Life.com, an award-winning, self-help and inspirational site where you can find hundreds of free resources, insights & words of inspiration to change your life, and Baby-Poems.com where you can find beautiful baby poems, baby quotes, cute sayings & baby videos that will touch your heart & increase your joy & gratitude for the children you love & enjoy! Check out Krystal's blogs: Give Thanks Journal, Baby Poems blog and Words of Inspiration blog!


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