Pour some cold, fresh milk (2% is fine) into a clear glass. Isn’t it beautiful? The pure white of the milk, captured by the glass, is inviting. You want to pick it up and take a drink, but don’t!
Before you drink, grab a small plate, or even a paper towel, and put two Oreo cookies on it. Settle into a comfortable chair, cookies and milk at your side. Look at them for just a moment, the perfect pairing!
Now, grab the glass of milk in your left hand (if you are right handed), and an Oreo in your right hand. Carefully dip about half of the cookie into the milk, and let it stay there for two, three, even four seconds, then draw it out and bite into that soft, milky, chocolaty, treat.
Repeat that process with the rest of that cookie and then the remaining cookie. Remember, don’t just dip the cookie in and pull it out, let it absorb the milk.
When you are finished with the cookies, you may drink the rest of the milk straightaway.
What have you done? You have enjoyed a delightful snack and you have practiced patience.
Now that you know that, you have an important reason to repeat this lesson often. I recommend, in fact, that you practice it at least four times a week. If you are by nature an impatient person, you should probably repeat it daily until your patience begins to improve.
The secret move
Silly? Only a little.
The good news for me is that I had to go through that whole milk and Oreos process before I started writing, just to make sure I had it right.
The secret move, I confirmed, is to leave the cookie in the milk for three or four seconds. If you are impatient, you are likely to go through the whole process too quickly. You’ll look like a four year old, and the world knows that four year old children are not patient.
In fact I drove about seventy miles today, more than half of that on freeways, and I’m certain that I saw a number of cars being driven by four-year-old children.
They sped up, they rarely slowed down. Going faster than most other cars, they cut in front of slower drivers who were only exceeding the speed limit by 10 miles an hour. There was no time for them to use their turn signals, they were in a hurry.
I wonder if all of those four-year-old drivers (I see them often) are trying to get an injured person to a hospital, or if most of them are late for work. The answer, I believe, is neither — they are simply impatient. They need more Oreos and cold milk.
It may be that distracted driving is a primary cause of accidents. But distracted driving is itself often caused by impatience. “I have to send that text.” No, you don’t. You have to drive.
Practicing patience
The blessing of impatient drivers is that they give me an extra opportunity to practice my own patience. In fact much of life is like that. There are predictable times of impatience, and they are the perfect opportunities to improve your patience.
One of those I learned years ago is this: we (implicitly) ask the server, the kitchen, and even our dining partners, to be patient with us while we take all the time we want to select our order in a restaurant. Once we have placed our order, though, we want that food delivered.
Many people who want to lose weight want to lose if now. I ask them, “How long did it take you to gain that weight? It might take that much time or more to lose it.” We were plenty patient with ourselves while we were eating an unhealthy diet, but are impatient with those helping us lose weight.
Do you want to learn a new language? Many do, and they buy the program that promises the fastest results. Want to get better at golf? Take lessons, and spend time on the practice range. In spite of YouTube videos that say otherwise, there are no quick fixes. Patient practice is the answer.
Are you waiting on God to send along some blessing or other? How long did God wait on you to ask him to get involved?
The path
There is a well-known list in the Bible. It is nine character traits called “the fruit of the Spirit.”
The list is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control. I thought this meant that all Christians loved, had joy, and so on. But I knew that all Christians weren’t patient.
What it really means is that if God’s Spirit is in you, people will be able to see it by the way you behave. It is kind of like saying you get apples from an apple tree. And from people with God’s spirit you get this fruit, including patience.
Why? Because these are the character traits of God. He is all of those things, including patient, so if his Spirit lives in you, you are likely to be patient. But it is not automatic. Everyone has to work at all of these, and none more than patience.
We want what we want, and we usually want it now.
That includes that Oreo we are holding in our hand. We don’t want to wait even a few seconds for it to absorb the milk. We don’t want to wait for the chef to cook our food just right. We don’t want to wait for that car on the highway to move over. We don’t want to wait to lose weight or for our business to take root and flourish.
But with patience we can have all of those things and more. As Rousseau said, “Patience is bitter, but its fruit is sweet.”
Patience also carries this amazing bonus: it is a great way to do good.
Do good. It’s in you.
Patience really is a virtue
Pour some cold, fresh milk (2% is fine) into a clear glass. Isn’t it beautiful? The pure white of the milk, captured by the glass, is inviting. You want to pick it up and take a drink, but don’t!
Before you drink, grab a small plate, or even a paper towel, and put two Oreo cookies on it. Settle into a comfortable chair, cookies and milk at your side. Look at them for just a moment, the perfect pairing!
Now, grab the glass of milk in your left hand (if you are right handed), and an Oreo in your right hand. Carefully dip about half of the cookie into the milk, and let it stay there for two, three, even four seconds, then draw it out and bite into that soft, milky, chocolaty, treat.
Repeat that process with the rest of that cookie and then the remaining cookie. Remember, don’t just dip the cookie in and pull it out, let it absorb the milk.
When you are finished with the cookies, you may drink the rest of the milk straightaway.
What have you done? You have enjoyed a delightful snack and you have practiced patience.
Now that you know that, you have an important reason to repeat this lesson often. I recommend, in fact, that you practice it at least four times a week. If you are by nature an impatient person, you should probably repeat it daily until your patience begins to improve.
The secret move
Silly? Only a little.
The good news for me is that I had to go through that whole milk and Oreos process before I started writing, just to make sure I had it right.
The secret move, I confirmed, is to leave the cookie in the milk for three or four seconds. If you are impatient, you are likely to go through the whole process too quickly. You’ll look like a four year old, and the world knows that four year old children are not patient.
In fact I drove about seventy miles today, more than half of that on freeways, and I’m certain that I saw a number of cars being driven by four-year-old children.
They sped up, they rarely slowed down. Going faster than most other cars, they cut in front of slower drivers who were only exceeding the speed limit by 10 miles an hour. There was no time for them to use their turn signals, they were in a hurry.
I wonder if all of those four-year-old drivers (I see them often) are trying to get an injured person to a hospital, or if most of them are late for work. The answer, I believe, is neither — they are simply impatient. They need more Oreos and cold milk.
It may be that distracted driving is a primary cause of accidents. But distracted driving is itself often caused by impatience. “I have to send that text.” No, you don’t. You have to drive.
Practicing patience
The blessing of impatient drivers is that they give me an extra opportunity to practice my own patience. In fact much of life is like that. There are predictable times of impatience, and they are the perfect opportunities to improve your patience.
One of those I learned years ago is this: we (implicitly) ask the server, the kitchen, and even our dining partners, to be patient with us while we take all the time we want to select our order in a restaurant. Once we have placed our order, though, we want that food delivered.
Many people who want to lose weight want to lose if now. I ask them, “How long did it take you to gain that weight? It might take that much time or more to lose it.” We were plenty patient with ourselves while we were eating an unhealthy diet, but are impatient with those helping us lose weight.
Do you want to learn a new language? Many do, and they buy the program that promises the fastest results. Want to get better at golf? Take lessons, and spend time on the practice range. In spite of YouTube videos that say otherwise, there are no quick fixes. Patient practice is the answer.
Are you waiting on God to send along some blessing or other? How long did God wait on you to ask him to get involved?
The path
There is a well-known list in the Bible. It is nine character traits called “the fruit of the Spirit.”
The list is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control. I thought this meant that all Christians loved, had joy, and so on. But I knew that all Christians weren’t patient.
What it really means is that if God’s Spirit is in you, people will be able to see it by the way you behave. It is kind of like saying you get apples from an apple tree. And from people with God’s spirit you get this fruit, including patience.
Why? Because these are the character traits of God. He is all of those things, including patient, so if his Spirit lives in you, you are likely to be patient. But it is not automatic. Everyone has to work at all of these, and none more than patience.
We want what we want, and we usually want it now.
That includes that Oreo we are holding in our hand. We don’t want to wait even a few seconds for it to absorb the milk. We don’t want to wait for the chef to cook our food just right. We don’t want to wait for that car on the highway to move over. We don’t want to wait to lose weight or for our business to take root and flourish.
But with patience we can have all of those things and more. As Rousseau said, “Patience is bitter, but its fruit is sweet.”
Patience also carries this amazing bonus: it is a great way to do good.
Do good. It’s in you.
Get The Do Good U news
We won’t send you spam. Unsubscribe anytime.
Let's Do Some Good
Learn more about our programs.