Just a little patience.

Waiting…sometimes…usually…pretty much…sucks—especially in our modern drive-thru, on-demand, Instagram culture. Patience seems to be a foreign concept, particularly with today’s younger generation. The truth is, having patience is hard; it doesn’t come naturally.Impatience appears in many forms: the kind where we over-expectantly want our desires to be instantly met; the kind where we let a sense of entitlement set us above others; and the kind that results from a fear of the unknown, wanting answers now—this is probably the most difficult of them all, and can be the most damaging.

This kind of impatience leads to worry, which breeds stress, which corrodes one’s hope and eventually destroys any sense of happiness. There will always be traffic jams in life—literally, emotionally, spiritually, and physically. We can either get angry, shouting at the top of our voice and beating on the steering wheel, or we can refocus our attention. You see, the real secret to patience is finding something else to do in the meantime.

When we find ourselves in those anxious stand-still moments, we need to remember that there is life outside of our tunnel vision. We must stop staring at the cars ahead (whether they might be a test result, an answer to an important question, a hoped-for change, or a little old lady paying for her groceries with pennies) and simply do something else—give our attention and our energy toward something else. Sometimes these traffic jams give us an opportunity to roll down the window; to get a better look at the scenery that we’d otherwise miss; to turn around and speak to the person in the back seat without having to give quick glances in the mirror; to turn up the radio and just sing.