The Patience of Time

We live in a world that is travelling at a faster pace each and every day. Our daily hustle and bustle pushes us, drives us, motivates us to constantly do more and do it quicker. We are driven by time or lack of it, in a society of instant gratification we seldom have the time to stop, take a deep breath and smell the real and proverbial roses planted and grown by our forefathers.

Life was simpler in those days, or was it? Understanding the pressures created by a multitude of time consumers in our daily lives gives us insight into what tries our patience. Losing our patience as a result of time constraints is common today.

How are Time and Patience Related

Stress and time
Stress and Time

Time – we know it as a measurable entity in our lives from the hours to minutes to seconds.

Patience – its something we usually wish we had more of, its our ability to stay calm, to not overreact but glide along effortlessly with the ebb and tide of life. How are the two intertwined?

Have you ever noticed that when you are running short on time, the pressure is mounting, you have to get somewhere or get something done right now, your patience is almost in direct relation to the time you have to do something. That is as your time decreases so does your patience. When you have hours to complete a task, your patience level is high, take the completion time for that task down to minutes and your patience level has also decreased, move the completion time to seconds and your patience is hanging by a thread if you have any left at all. Thus, the phrase “the patience of time”.

Our Daily Time

Time through the hourglass

Let’s be honest life is hectic. With the technology we have today, our lives should be simpler and they are in some respects. The downside of all this technology is there is no escape, no break, we have access to our work, email, the internet, movies, music, friends and family 24/7.

With the invention of the smart phone we are now plugged into all areas of our lives without interruption. From the time we wake until the time we close our eyes we have the ability to stay connected. With that connection comes a tremendous amount of pressure to do more, just check one more thing, read one more email from work, check in with one more friend on social media. Without any down time, we are constantly in a “Go-go-go” mode. Then we turn our phones off seconds before going to bed and lay awake wondering why we can’t instantly go to sleep, our mind is still racing at a full sprint.

Our Daily Patience

There are days when I am amazed that I have kept my composure, remained calm and patient past the first sip of coffee first thing in the morning.

With everything pushing and pulling us constantly in varying directions, the ability to keep one’s patience is almost a super human feat. How can we remain calm, we have so much to get done. The more we have to do and the later it gets in the day, the shorter our fuse becomes.

If any of you live near Murphy (Murphy’s Law) you understand the old adage all too well – “anything that can possibly go wrong, does”. For me personally it always seems to go wrong when time is also running out. Naturally the more that goes wrong the more time it takes and the more time it takes the more my patience disappears.

It is truly a vicious cycle where we sometimes start out with zero patience and make it a day to remember as time will invariably not be on our side.

Keeping Your Time and Patience

I will be blatantly honest, I have not invented a time machine, I don’t know how to stop or turn back time, sorry to those of you hoping for that miracle.

So if time is out of the equation because we cannot really control it to any degree and there is a limited amount of time each day, you cannot add any extra, what do you do? If time is fixed each day, what can we control…Our Patience.

We can have as much or as little patience as we want or work at keeping. Are there days that we are going to be ready to throw in the towel or throw our coffee mug across the room first thing in the morning, ABSOLUTELY!!

Surprisingly the more patience we have the more time we seem to have, it may be an illusion or there may be something to it. If we keep our cool, stay calm, exhibit patience we don’t waste time and energy getting upset.

How do you keep your patience when the world seems to be against you? First take a deep breath, slow down your thinking, realize that by rushing you are putting yourself in a position to create more issues. If you can keep calm, stay focused on what you need to do, you significantly reduce the chance of something going wrong. Secondly recognize that the people in the situation are not a target for your lack of patience. We often lash out at those closest to us when our patience has left the building. Thirdly and honestly firstly, trust in the Lord, believe that where you are and what you are doing at this very moment was meant to happen, both the good and bad. Accepting that life has its moments and those moments are meant to happen, takes away the disappointment and destructiveness. Your faith and acceptance of the situation as its meant to be, all components of it will give you an inner calm, you will be overflowing with patience, time will be on your side.


Our forefathers did not have all the technological distractions we have today. They had other constraints that affected their time and most certainly tried their patience. Time never changes, there are only so many hours in each day, the demands of the day will try our patience. Losing control of our patience will cause us to waste valuable time on excess emotions. There is only one inner calm that can bestow upon you the patience necessary to survive our hectic, fast paced and demanding lives. Trust in God as God has trusted in you!!

Trust in God


4 thoughts on “The Patience of Time
  1. How true are your words about patience running high when time is running low! Thank you for the advice on how to maintain your patience. I have a very stressful job and this is also my own business so I often feel stretched to the limit on both time and patience. It’s helpful to know that I am not the only one that feels like this sometimes (I am after all only human!) and that can do something about it. I will try to practice the breathing exercises next time I am thrown into a pressure situation. Thanks again

    1. Thank you for the feedback, it is greatly appreciated. I hope that you can find that moment before it’s too late to slow everything down and keep your composure. It takes time, practice and of course patience. Best wishes, if there is anything I can do to help, please feel free to message me anytime. 

  2. you have hit the nail on the head when you mentioned that we waste even more valuable time on excess emotions and I can totally relate to that. I am a rather impatient person myself and I always try to rush through everything (even when nobody is pressuring me to do so). I feel that for me to truly experience happiness, I have to learn how to be patient because I always feel rushed for no reason and no, I wish i had an excuse for this such as eating too much sugar but i eat fine haha

    1. Thank you for sharing and for the feedback. Life is a constant learn, we are continually pushed to grow, evolve, change for the better hopefully and mature. I hope that you can find the patience that you are looking for. Wishing you all the best.

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