The Power of Patience

Patience involves waiting for the Lord’s guidance, but it also includes acting with a positive attitude. 

Hillary Olsen was sick and wasn’t getting better. She wanted a miracle, but all she heard was “we bless you with patience.” Her August 2015 article, “Patience: More Than Waiting,” was published in the Ensign and Liahona. 

One thing she learned about patience, she writes, “is that it’s not a lesson we learn only once.” Olsen learned from Elder Neal A. Maxwell that patience is “a willingness . . . to watch the unfolding purposes of God with a sense of wonder and awe, rather than pacing up and down within the cell of our circumstance.”

As she pondered this Christlike quality, Olsen discovered that patience is not just an inward characteristic. We can use our patience as an example to others. Trials and tests will come, so the only thing we can control is how we handle these experiences. Will you look back pleased with how you handled challenges, or will you notice that you could have been more confident in times of waiting?

Elder Maxwell taught, “If we are always selfishly taking our temperature to see if we are happy, we will not be.”

Our attitude can greatly determine how we view patience. May we remember that Jesus Christ knows patience more than anyone else—he is waiting for us to come follow him.

Read about active patience in Hillary Olsen’s article in the Ensign or the Liahona. 

Sources: Ensign and Liahona.
—Jenna Koford, Mormon Insights

Find more insights

Read Elder Dieter F. Uchtdorf’s conference talk, “Continue in Patience” and watch the corresponding video.

Read Elder Joseph B. Wirthlin’s “Patience, a Key to Happiness.”