Patient and long-suffering

Our Family scripture for this year is Alma 7:23-24: 


And now I would that ye should be humble, and be submissive and gentle; easy to be entreated; full of patience and long-suffering; being temperate in all things; being diligent in keeping the commandments of God at all times; asking for whatsoever things ye stand in need, both spiritual and temporal; always returning thanks unto God for whatsoever things ye do receive.

 And see that ye have faith, hope, and charity, and then ye will always abound in good works.

Being patient is hard. It's difficult to wait for things that we desire. It's also difficult to endure challenges. Lately certain of my children have required a lot of...long suffering. I don't really know what to do. Sometimes I feel angry when my kids act up, and it seems justifiable to harshly punish them. But when I am listening to the promptings of the Holy Ghost, I am certain that the only course is patience and long-suffering. I need to tattoo that thought on my forehead. "Just be patient. They will get through this stage. Love them like crazy and keep teaching them and it will all work out." 

This month's visiting teaching message is full of hope!

Patience is often thought of as a quiet, passive trait, but as President Dieter F. Uchtdorf, Second Counselor in the First Presidency, said, “Patience is not passive resignation, nor is it failing to act because of our fears. Patience means active waiting and enduring. It means staying with something … even when the desires of our hearts are delayed. Patience is not simply enduring; it is enduring well!”

In our premortal life, our Heavenly Father prepared a plan for us—His spirit children—and we shouted for joy at the opportunity to come to earth (see Job 38:7). As we choose to align our will with His during our earthly life, He “will make an instrument of [us] in [His] hands unto the salvation of many souls” (Alma 17:11).

President Uchtdorf continued, “Patience means accepting that which cannot be changed and facing it with courage, grace, and faith. It means being ‘willing to submit to all things which the Lord seeth fit to inflict upon [us], even as a child doth submit to his father’ [Mosiah 3:19]. Ultimately, patience means being ‘firm and steadfast, and immovable in keeping the commandments of the Lord’ [1 Nephi 2:10] every hour of every day, even when it is hard to do so.”¹