Patience is oftentimes the virtue that most people find difficult to put into practice. Our world is filled with promises of instant gratification. We can order food, clothes, books, furniture, and anything we could imagine online and at the touch of a button and have it at our doorstep before we have even had the chance to think twice. Seeing quick results is undoubtedly gratifying, but the feeling is often fleeting. Once that feeling of gratification fades, we then have to start looking for the next best thing to satisfy us. A societal lack of patience comes hand in hand with a societal increase of desire. What we have will never be enough, and we prefer to get something new rather than take care of and invest in what we already have. People give up a lot of things, such as hobbies, passions, or even relationships, that have the potential to be great, but they are not willing to have the patience to see the thing through. These things often bring way more gratification precisely because they require patience, and we know that once we have achieved what we desire, it is all thanks to our own persistence.
Loving with patience means choosing to love those around us and loving ourselves even when it is difficult. It is easy to love someone when they are doing well, and all is going well for us as well. However, we all go through turbulent times, and oftentimes we experience a lot of unpleasant emotions that turn us into people that are not particularly pleasant to be around. We all go through periods when we feel frustrated and sad. This is when a practice of patience in love is most necessary. We need to be able to support those around us in the bad times, just as we would hope that they would be able to patient with us in our difficult moments, too. Patient love is a love that is persistent, unfaltering, and unconditional. It means holding on to promise and hope and choosing to have a positive outlook on the future even when it seems bleak. It means that we keep going in whatever it is we are working towards, whether that means any sort of personal or professional goal or even improving a relationship, even when we are not certain what the outcome will be.
It is easy to fall into the trap of having a short-sighted vision of the future. Imagining long-term futures has become increasingly hard for a lot of people as it now seems that the world changes at an unpredictable and exponential pace. A patient love requires us to have a long-term vision of the future even when the future seems out of reach. While we do not know exactly what might happen a few years or even a few months down the road, a patient love is not deterred by life’s occurrences, but rather its focus is on long-term well-being, stability, persistence, and graciousness. It is a long-standing commitment that has a high pay-off, which is that of a life full of love and fulfillment that has been well-earned.
