10 Ways To Be More Patient

As I put my 3 year old son back into bed for about the 25th time tonight in an attempt to get him back into the habit of going to sleep by himself, I reflected on patience and how we can grow in it.

I have been complimented on my patience with the children, but it is still one of the top things I pray for! Here are some tips from what I have learned:

1. Pray, pray, and keep praying – I have had ‘patience’ on my daily prayer list ever since first having children! And when I am struggling I throw lots of arrow prayers up, ‘Lord please give me patience!’ 
2. Love – ‘love is patient’, so love them. 
3. Have compassion – remind yourself of what it would feel like to be in the other person’s or child’s shoes. 
4. Take time – if you are rushed or very busy it is a lot more difficult to be patient. 
5. Speak calmly – force yourself to speak gently and calmly. 
6. Get enough sleep – tiredness and sleepiness easily lead to impatience. 
7. Watch for idols – sometimes we can get irritable or impatient because we have our heart set on something and when it looks like we’re not going to get it we get grumpy.
8. Look out for side effects – believe it or not impatience can be a side effect of some medicines, though I don’t think it is labelled quite like that! 
9. Walk in the Spirit – patience is one of the fruits of the spirit, so to bear fruit we need to remain abiding in Christ, staying close to God, walking in the Spirit rather than in our flesh.
10. Retreat if necessary – sometimes when I feel close to erupting, I will go shut myself in the bedroom or bathroom for a few minutes. Then I talk to myself, reminding myself of what is important and how I should act, and pray for help.

Please feel free to share more tips on growing in patience in the comments.