Article March 20, 2006 Issue

PATIENCE IN AN IMPATIENT WORLD

BY ANNETTE KREUTZIGER-HERR

Patience is so much more than stoic waiting. It is a power, a source of strength.

"Patience is wisdom," says a marginal heading in Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures, Mary Baker Eddy's textbook on practical Christianity (p. 66). In fact, patience is a quality long associated with Christ Jesus, and is often connected to poise and grace. There is definitely a spiritual touch and a divine blessing to our practice of patience.

At the same time, it seems that there is often too little time to be patient. The motto of our days is everything fast, instant response, quick reaction—and patience sometimes seems to be something from a longed-for fairy-tale world, or from an earlier century.