Patience – What Your Mother Forgot To Tell You

Felice Gerwitz is a wife, mother of five graduated homeschoolers, and grandma to eight. She began Media Angels® Publishing while pregnant with her third child and went on to write and produce many books and online conferences. Felice is the founder of the Ultimate Homeschool Podcast Network and the Ultimate Christian Podcast Network. Felice invites you to join her on her show Vintage Homeschool Moms, celebrating its 400^th episode!

When you think of the word patience, what comes to mind? Exactly. It is not my favorite word and I can’t think of one character quality I like the least. Patience requires, in my mind anyway, a heroic action. It takes waiting. And waiting. And yes, even more waiting. But, the end result is wonderful if we manage to achieve this elusive quality.

How can you have patient children?

My Italian mother was this amazing, robust and happy woman. She hugged you when she met you, she didn’t know a stranger and she was patient. She patiently stirred her spaghetti sauce, simmering it, or a pot of soup made from scratch. My mother always told me that all good things were worth waiting for and fighting for! One thing she, however, forgot to tell me was that learning this virtue would be so hard. Her daughter, me was terribly impulsive. She also had no way of knowing that patience wouldn’t be needed quite as much in this instant world in which we now live.

We are spoiled. We live in an instant society, where things happen quickly. No waiting required. So how much worse for an impulsive child? How can we expect our children to be patient when they don’t have to practice it often? And how do we as imperfect parents teach our children patience? Of course, we expect our kids to wait before crossing the street, or for their turn at the park, or when playing a game. And, we can all agree that we dislike people who are impatient.

We can have patient children, and I do have a solution, but I’m not sure you’ll like it. Are you ready for this? We need to practice being patient. And, we need to catch ourselves before we demonstrate the opposite. Easy right? There is a wonderful thing that happens in family life. We can be real and honest and share our own frustrations and limitations with our children. We can struggle through this together!

What a victory that will be when we learn to be patient together. Our kids will help us to be better people and they will also learn that their own struggles are real. In each home, we have a wonderful place to share with our children and learn and grow alongside them, because I for one am not done learning.

You can help teach your children patience with the Character Counts Planner:

This month in particular as I write my Character Counts planner I selected the topic of “patience” on purpose. The entire world is in the midst of a pandemic and we are grappling with the restrictions placed on our lives. This was not the planner I wanted to write. It is one I thought we could all benefit from as for the first time we are all practicing patience. I mean really practice it.

We are patient when only a small number of people are allowed into grocery stores. We exhibit patience when we find items we take for granted missing from the store shelves, or as we wait to listen to the latest events on the news. As I face daily struggles with patience I write them down and work to overcome. While I am sure my list would look different than yours, I do know we are all in this together. You from your home and me from mine.

A thought hit me recently. Our lack of patience often stems from our love for ourselves over others. Why are we so critical of others when we do not see this struggle in our own lives? It is time to stop and take an assessment and see once again areas where we need to improve. I wonder how we will look back at this time next year? I hope as new and improved versions of ourselves. This I am sure is something my mother, now in heaven, would agree with wholeheartedly.

When you think of the word patience, what comes to mind?

If you said that “patience is a virtue”, I’m right there with you!

I create a themed Character Counts Planner each month with a new theme. These character studies are completely open and go with a plan for you to teach your children about the character trait you are working on. It includes lots of free printables and studies on that character trait. It will be delivered to your inbox each month when you sign up for our email newsletter. 

You can sign up HERE to receive the Character Counts: Patience Study and a new one trait each month!