Patience

There are plenty of things you hear early in life that you never fully grasp until you get older. When I was in third grade, living in Odem, Texas, we were playing baseball, a new experience for me, and I wasn’t very good. I’d become notorious for having a good cry on the bench after I struck out. My grandmother, Granny Dix from Virginia, was there and she watched me strike out and go have my little pout-party in the dugout. I’ll never forget what she said to me, then. She came up to me and said, “Larry, you’re going to be just fine. Patience is a virtue.” I was eight years old then, and I’m fifty-four years old today and I still remember that moment like it was yesterday. It was just an amazing realization for me. She was just a sweet soul. I’m not saying I’m good at it, and Lord knows you’ve probably heard it a million and one times. I’m still an impatient person, but then I think back on that moment. I think many people realize that the older they get, the less control they have over so many things in their lives. They tend to clamp down harder on the things that they believe they have the most hold on and become the most impatient with those.

One of the few things in life any human being will ever have control of is their attitude, and patience is a huge part of that. Many a good man has entered a cycle of anxiety that stems from stress and impatience with elements that remain outside of their control. I’m sure many people have also heard the phrase that “haste makes waste.” This phrase becomes a pretty viable mentality to apply to any occupation in life.  If you rush through things, end up doing a sloppy job on it, that’s more time you’ll have to spend going back to fix it or do it right, better to measure twice and cut once than to waste the energy and material. Everyone seems to have their own phrase that encourages patience, something personal to them that ties in to a great life lesson. For my grandma to have come all that way to see me play, and forty-some years ago, people didn’t just hop on jets for a casual visit, struck me as something important. Her words were worth listening to. So take a second not only to reflect on how you can be patient with yourself and others, but how your words and actions can influence those around you.