Patience in Relation to ADD

Patience is a virtue, something we should strive for, in our lives. We all have our ways of increasing our ability to be patient. Such as self-denial, prayer, fasting, practicing, waiting, and learning through experiences. Some of us use ADD as an outlet for patience. Many forms of this type of ADD are as distractions.

By using ADD I mean that we busy ourselves in order to appear patient. Suppose someone is looking for a job. Maybe the Lord has called them to be patient and He will provide. Someone with the ADD form of patience might go out and get several interviews and even take on a couple of part time jobs to fill the time, when they were supposed to be being patient. Sometimes we were called to stay patient and put out resumes. Then by not being ADD you can go to that random interview because you aren’t tied up with the distraction or part time job.

Another example might be making impulsive decisions about what to eat. I know I’ve stopped by random fast food restaurants or grabbed a TV dinner just to not have to wait. When, if I would have just focused long enough to see what opportunities were afforded and not been impatient about my dinner the outcome could have been very different. There could have been an opportunity to make a delicious and more affordable meal at home. Maybe the possibility to eat out and fellowship with a friend might have come up. However, we were being too busy filling up our stomachs and forgetting to be patient.

One of the scariest ways we do this as a single is filling our lives with distractions so it is easier to have dating ADD. This can be done in three ways. The first is by filling our lives up with activities. A lot of times it is so full there not time for a possible significant other. This can come to the point of not taking the opportunity to meet with people of the opposite sex. Some women have only women’s Bible studies, a girls night, an art class, and a full schedule of “ chick flicks” that doesn’t even allow the chance for them to meet any men.

The second is a by filling our lives with so many possibles to date that we don’t take time to truly invest in them personally. This is when someone amounts a great deal of dates or friends of the opposite sex, as prospects. It is too easy to play the comparison game during this time. Of course there will always be someone who is better at this or that. The point is, you shouldn’t be looking for the perfect 10 overall, you should be looking for the slightly imperfect 10 that fits you. So obviously fishing through streams of men or women is not being patient and it’s being very ADD when dating.

Beneficial friends and “in the meantime” relationships are also forms of ADD rather than patience. I’m sorry but no you aren’t patiently waiting when you have a make-out buddy on call or a not-so-serious dating relationship. Besides, both of these can be harmful to your next potential relationship. So lets just focus on the actual relationship we want and not keep fill it with things that can easily distract us.

When you have ADD instead of patience, it is easy to see you are distracted by the things of this world. Your eyes have left the higher prize and you might just be settling for quick fixes instead of long-term solutions. What is patience really? It is a moment of waiting and edifying yourself during a small space in time. It’s an actual point in life where we can stop and just improve our strategies and ourselves.

Patience is not a time of stagnation. Although it takes a long time for water from Colorado, to flow into the gulf, it still happens. It may even create a portion of a canyon in the process, but that is all a part of the flow. Allow those times in your life when you are required to be patient, form you and mold you into the best person you are supposed to be. So that when the outcome arises you can be there ready to embrace it not distracted so much that you miss it.