I am a really impatient person. When I was younger and I didn’t want to be late for an activity, I would go wait out in the car. (Mind you, I was unable to drive at this point in my life.) If I didn’t think a family member was moving fast enough, I would usually end up honking the horn or yelling from the garage for them to get a move on. I know, I know, not my finest moments.
While I am still not a perfectly patient person, I have considerably improved since then. Patience is a process that I will continue to be improving upon throughout my life. If you, like me, struggle at times with patience—whether it be with yourself, family members, or your circumstances—here are a few quotes to help you remember the importance of developing patience.
Neil A. Maxwell
“Patience is not indifference. Actually, it is caring very much, but being willing, nevertheless, to submit both to the Lord and to what the scriptures call the ‘process of time.’ Patience is tied very closely to faith in our Heavenly Father. Actually, when we are unduly impatient, we are suggesting that we know what is best—better than does God. Or, at least, we are asserting that our timetable is better than his” (Patience).
Dieter F. Uchtdorf
“Patience is a process of perfection. The Savior Himself said that in your patience you possess your souls. Or, to use another translation of the Greek text, in your patience you win mastery of your souls. Patience means to abide in faith, knowing that sometimes it is in the waiting rather than in the receiving that we grow the most. This was true in the time of the Savior. It is true in our time as well, for we are commanded in these latter days to ‘continue in patience until ye are perfected'” (Continue in Patience).
Marvin J. Ashton
“Have more patience with yourself—more self-understanding. I would plead that we understand it is not our role to be self-condemning. I like to think when we are taught ‘Judge not, that ye be not judged,’ that it has direct reference to us and our relationship with ourselves. We should not judge ourselves. We should teach ourselves patience—patience to believe in ourselves, patience to motivate ourselves, patience to believe that God and I can do it. When necessary, lean on the truth ‘I am a child of God.’ God and I, with patience on my part, can do it. I remind you we do not have to worry about the patience of God, because he is the personification of patience, no matter where we have been, what we have done, or what we, to this moment, have allowed ourselves to think of ourselves” (Patience Is a Great Power).
Joseph B. Wirthlin
“A certain amount of impatience may be useful to stimulate and motivate us to action. However, I believe that a lack of patience is a major cause of the difficulties and unhappiness in the world today. Too often, we are impatient with ourselves, with our family members and friends, and even with the Lord. We seem to demand what we want right now, regardless of whether we have earned it, whether it would be good for us, or whether it is right…Perhaps the practice of patience is more difficult, yet more necessary, now than at any previous time” (Patience, a Key to Happiness).
Robert C. Oaks
“Recently I attended the funeral of a lifelong friend. His son told a beautiful story of parental patience. When the son was in his youth, his dad owned a motorcycle dealership. One day they received a shipment of shiny new motorcycles, and they lined them all up in the store. The boy did what every boy would like to do, and he climbed up on the closest one. He even started it up. Then, when he figured he had pushed his luck far enough, he jumped off. To his dismay, his dismount knocked the first bike down. Then, like a string of dominoes, they all went down, one after another. His dad heard the commotion and looked out from behind the partition where he was working. Slowly, smiling, he said, ‘Well, son, we had better fix one up and sell it, so we can pay for the rest of them.’
I think my friend’s response personifies parental patience” (The Power of Patience).
Elaine L. Jack
“Patience is like happiness. It isn’t something you jot down on a list of things to do like ‘do the laundry.’ It comes as we are doing something else.
Patience can be lost or found everywhere: at stop lights, in crowds, in long lunch lines, at the library when someone has failed to return the book you needed, when your roommate’s problems become your problems, when you can’t figure out that calculus problem and you’ve tried so hard. These are the everyday listings of patience at work. It takes patience to go on a mission and pray for someone to listen. Just listen. It takes patience to do your home teaching or visiting teaching or care for an elderly parent or a disabled brother or sister. It takes patience to recognize your mistakes and work to correct them, and it takes patience to learn how to do something well. Patience is in short supply in so many lives and is so critical in all our lives” (“All This Way for That?”).
Robert D. Hales
“Too often we pray to have patience, but we want it right now! As a young man, President David O. McKay prayed for a witness of the truthfulness of the gospel. Many years later, while he was serving his mission in Scotland, that witness finally came. Later he wrote, ‘It was an assurance to me that sincere prayer is answered “sometime, somewhere'”(Waiting upon the Lord: Thy Will Be Done).
Thomas S. Monson
“In sickness, with its attendant pain, patience is required. If the only perfect man who ever lived—even Jesus of Nazareth—was called upon to endure great suffering, how can we, who are less than perfect, expect to be free of such challenges?” (Patience—A Heavenly Virtue).
