During the December holidays I decided to go on a mini road trip all by myself , 15 hours’ drive. It was a stretch but every experience on the road was a learning curve for me. I had to learn to be patient when driving that long distance though it was difficult at first. A truck would be in front of me going really slow on a single lane road, and at times the truck driver wouldn’t want to give me a chance to overtake, and I just had to keep driving behind him until the road changed to two lanes; at least that was a relief!
But then this experience made me wonder why do we tend to be so impatient with each other? Why do we want to rush through life? Why do we want to take short cuts when the road seems long and boring? As I drove, I had to ask myself what’s really stressing me out and making me be so impatient? Is it that the driver is driving too slow or is it that I’m running after time (as I had to reach my destination right on time)? I had to learn to calm down and not to get mad at the driver or hoot at him.
Identifying what tends to make us impatient can help us when we get in situations like these. As I was driving I had a lot to think about, on how to deal with patience in stressful situations in the near future.
Remember What Really Matters
I had to think about what really matters. I wanted to get home on time, but that means I still had to be safe and take extra precautions on the road. Having said that, I had to be patient until I reached a two lane road for me to overtake.
Get Busy and Do Something
I had to keep myself busy the whole trip. Luckily I had lots of CD’s to listen to. I spent time in prayer and worship. Keeping busy is a great way to get your mind off of things that are making you lose patience. Boredom sometimes breeds impatience.
One song that really made my trip super fun was Marvin Sapp’s song “Not now doesn’t mean never”.
In the song Marvin speaks about patience, waiting for the right time to receive your blessing, to receive what you have patiently been waiting for. It doesn’t mean when things don’t go your way it’s the end of the world. It purely means it’s not the time yet. We have to practice patience at all times, even with the smallest things.