Article January 24, 1931 Issue

Learn to Wait

ALMA SCHIERBAUM

Impetuousness or impatience is, generally speaking, a trait of youth. At the extreme swing of the pendulum is the passive waiting which sometimes comes with age, resulting from years of waiting, and often waiting in vain. Humanity needs to learn how to wait wisely and scientifically. Someone has said, and with a great deal of truth, that to know how to wait patiently is the secret of success.

The word "wait" is defined by Webster in part as follows: "To stay or rest in expectation. . . . To be or remain ready to serve or execute orders." To wait with expectation actively supplemented with willingness to serve, and to serve gladly—this is to wait wisely and scientifically. But to wait in this manner requires more than mere human strength and ability. Disappointment, dismay, discouragement cannot be overcome by idle waiting, or proved unreal without effort. The nothingness of these mortal traits must be understood and demonstrated. The temptation to believe in a power apart from God must be replaced with the knowledge of God's omnipotence and ever-presence.

In extreme need, humanity is apt to turn for help outside itself. Some persons look blindly to God. Others turn to God with childlike faith; and these never wait in vain. The right concept of God brings with it a correct understanding of man and of man's relationship to God. Thus, a mortal phase of waiting may be seen as a time of unfoldment, the length of which is dependent upon individual effort to see God and man aright.

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