Impatience is a Virtue

 

I'm a naturally impatient person, and I am self-aware enough to know this is a bad thing that I need to work on. Impatience is, in my book, literally a sin, in that it acts like I have a better handle than my God on the timing of something. It is also a jerky way to act to and around others, as if you're better than them because your time is more important than theirs. So it is right that we call it out in our lives and make effort to root it out of our behavior.

And yet. There is a way in which patience is an excuse for inaction, in ways that are not good for us or others. Having a predisposition for action can be a good thing, when that action is beneficial and when the default is to procrastinate or be cowardly. So this too is something I'm trying to work on, which is that when something needs to be said or done and others are being waffly, being willing to be uncomfortable or unpopular and launching out into whatever needs to be said or done.

Patience is a virtue. But impatience can be too.