Patience!

PATIENCE!

What exactly is patience?
Do you have patience?
Have you ever been angered by patience?
Is patience painful?
Why is patience ages?



All these and many more questions are questions people ask others and even theirselves, maybe you might have done so. If you havent, then try and do. Most times as Nigerians, we lack patience in almost everything we do... even in eating. Before the end of this article, i would be telling an annoying but educating experience i had with patience.
If we all should do a flash back on our various lives, we would be surprised to know that most mistakes made arise from lack of patience because we take or make hasty decisions and actions. Most people on the other hand not only make mistakes but get ruined for life because of lack of patience. Patience, among other things if not andled with care is a disastrous killer of destiny, purpose, meaning and future plans. We can therefore say that patience is being slow to anger or wrath, or the character or trait which needs developement for effective thinking and acting.
Most times here in Nigeria because of patience, people with patience are usually regarded as not being sharp (i.e being slow when others are moving so fast towards a target). Most greedy Nigerians use this as a means to outsmart the patient ones. Patient people are also usually jeered at when in the mist of hasty people (especially the get rich quick kind of people) and this in a way distracts them from their main purpose and purpose for being patient! These kind of patient people would in a way begin to feel inferior and finally end up being hasty in all their doings which might result to their ruin if not cecked early enough. Take for instance, a young man in his early twenties worked as a carpenter and had in mind that through his handiwork though not minding the sweat, he would be able to sustain himself and maybe succeed. But unfortunately for him, his friend who he knew as a lazy guy and who never had any thing doing came over to his house with a brand new model Ford jeep. Seeing this, he became immediately surprised and eager to know his friend made the money. Being a good friend but with some little bit of caution, he told him of how he got to make such money for a jeep (i.e through crime). The young man out of frustration decided to do just as his friend had done. Well, he got caught and had to spend some years in jail. Such kind of situations constitute the pains of being patient, and so makes patience a little bit of painful.

Apart from being painful, patience could seem like ages when the reason for being patient takes so long to happen or come to pass. Sometimes, people out of exaustation from being patient, start querrying themselves for being patient in the first place instead of being hasty in their doings, or they might even take after the young man in the story above. Another instance for explaining this is of a young lady who at the age of twenty began making plans about the type and kind of man she wanted as a usband. As usual, she wanted a handsome, caring, trust-worthy, God fearing, understanding, listening, and most importantly, a wealthy young man. That was her plan and so she had to wait for it. So many years passed by until finally she in exhaustation began to have a re-think on her kind of man. Well luckily for her, after detoriating in beauty and turning down so many proposals from so many men, her 'Mr Right' came knocking. Pheeew! What a relief that must have been for her for she was already twenty-nine years old. Though after such a long, frustrating, and exhausting wait, she is happily married with three lovely kids. With this story, patience could be said to seem like ages when plans, or dreams are not immediately met. But, with determination, it could be fun waiting!

Ever imagined how annoying patience could be? Patience could be annoying when after being tired of waiting for such a long time, you decide to take a hasty decision or action not knowing that could have been the time your need would have been met. This part reminds me of an annoying, sort of funny, but educating experience i had. I was surfing the wap world with my phone and suddenly, the connection was lost. I kept 'refreshing' the page trying to check if the connection had been restored but all to no avail. I continued with the refreshing until finally i got so annoyed that i pushed the 'cancel' command button. But, that was exactly when the connection was restored... but i had already pushed the button and so that was it, i had to start all over again... refreshing but this time with a lesson in my mind. Most of us might have had the same experience as mentioned above.

Finally, this goes out to you the reader, do you have patience?