Impatiently they awaited as their levels of stress began to rise. Hearts racing, fist-clenching, fingers tapping, while others just paced the floor. Pacing and thinking that they would rather have scalding iron stuck to their stomach rather than to wait. For anything to be delayed causing them to have to wait at least that makes them extremely irritable. The fuse of their tempers are shortened and you can tell by the look on their faces they are ready to explode at any moment.
Impatience is the quality or state of being restless. Being impatient means one is easily frustrated or angry at any time a wait is necessary. Impatience is the opposite of patience which is being able to bear pain or trials without complaining or being made angry.
Currently in most parts of the world with a press the remote control, click of a mouse, or the press of a button on a microwave, people can have what they want within seconds. Waiting is often not in the vocabulary of many children. They want what they want as soon as they want it.
Unfortunately, some parents or adults give in to the children’s wants with the rationalization that they want their children to have more than they did growing up. When this happens the child gets what they want as well as a learned behavior of thinking anytime they ask for it or demand it it will be granted to them.
The one thing children need today is an imagination. From 1997 to 1999 was the first two years I worked as a counselor in a school system. It was during this time when I first realized how little of an imagination most children at that time had compared to when I was a child. Now fast-forward 20 years later and unfortunately many children are just as unimaginative. My personal opinion is mainly due to all the technology they don’t have to use their imagination.
This article was written 20 years ago and at that time there was a Canadian psychologist that had done research that showed the less imagination a child has the more likely that child will become violent. Then pair that up with other research that shows links to violent video games, TV shows, cartoons, and movies and the risk of impatience greatly increases.
The hope is that patience can be attained. True patience can only be gotten through the spirit of God. The fruit of the spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, and self-control; against such things there is no law found in Galatians 5: 22- 23. The great Evangelist Billy Graham once said, “Each life is made up of mistakes and learning, waiting and growing, practicing patience and being persistent.” The American essayist and poet, Ralph Waldo Emerson once advised, “Adopt the pace of nature: her secret is patience.”
Originally written March 1999
-TRS
Rays of Hope 