Patience and contentment are so intricately tied together for me. I have always been in a hurry. In grade school, my grades suffered because I rushed through tests, always the first one to turn in my test. In middle and high school, I spent all day going from school to cheer practice, to gymnastics practice, to [insert other sport here] practice that I never found time to just rest. I graduated college a year early. And now I'm a 21 year old graduate student. Being in a hurry is *clearly* a recurrent theme in my life if I'm being honest. :)
Patience is so tough because it usually requires a delay of gratification. And generally, when I'm rushing on specific things it's because I'm trying to fulfill some need or want... some void that is empty. Emptiness is painful... it's super freakin' uncomfortable, so of course, I'm in a rush to fill it with something or someone.
Patience requires putting off what would fill that void now, and waiting for the better time. Patience requires sacrificing those warm-fuzzies we get when we do pour "Stuff" (clothes, $5 coffees, something you'll never use but you got it because it was on clearance, you get the point....) into that emptiness. Patience requires trusting that there is a better time than now and owning that.
No wonder patience is so hard!
