Sunday Happenings

Lesson: April 2010 Conference Talk "Continue in Patience"
Instructor: Sister Smith

What is patience?

• "The ability to put our desires on hold for a time"
• "active waiting and enduring. It means staying with something and doing all that we can -- working, hoping, and exercising faith; bearing hardships with fortitude, even when the desires of our hearts are delayed. Patience is not simply enduring; it is enduring well!"
• "a godly attribute that can heal souls; unlock treasures of knowledge and understanding, and transform ordinary men and women into saints and angels. Patience is truly a fruit of the spirit".
• "staying with something until the end. It means delaying immediate gratification for future blessings."
• "Patience means to abide in faith, knowing that sometimes it is in the waiting rather than in the receiving that we grow the most."

Elder Uchtdorf started out his talk by sharing an experiment with four year old children. Each child was given a marshmallow and told that they could eat it now, but if they waited for 15 minutes they would then get two marshmellows. The children were left alone and watched behind a two-way mirror. "Some of the children ate the marshmallow immediately; some could wait only a few minutes before giving in to temptation. Only 30 percent were able to wait.
But as time went on, he kept track of the children and began to notice an interesting correlation: the children who could not wait struggled later in life and had more behavioral problems, while those who waited tended to be more positive and better motivated, have higher grades and incomes, and have healthier relationships. What started as a simple experiment with children and marshmallows became a landmark study suggesting that the ability to wait—to be patient—was a key character trait that might predict later success in life."

"Every one of us is called to wait in our own way. We wait for answers to prayers. We wait for things which at the time may appear so right and so good to us that we can't possibly imagine why Heavenly Father would delay the answer."

"The lessons we learn from patience will cultivate our character, lift our lives, and heighten our happiness. They will help us to become worthy priesthood bearers and faithful disciples of our Master, Jesus Christ."

Family Home Evening:

This talk would make a great Family Home Evening lesson go here for a copy.

LDS Living has a FHE lesson on patience, go here to see it.

Another idea would be to find a Young Woman Personal Progress goal that would fit with patience and work on it this week.