Being patient with yourself leaves door open for change

“Patience with others is love. Patience with self is hope. Patience with God is faith.” – Adel Bestavros

By Stacy Glynn LaMorte
NOLA Catholic Parenting columnist

Two and a half years ago, I made a mini-pilgrimage to the Shrine of Blessed Seelos at St. Mary’s Assumption Church in the Irish Channel.

If you have never been to this beautiful, healing place, I recommend making the time to go. The church itself is akin to visiting a church in Germany, the country from which many of the skilled artisans who built it emigrated. 

It was a very peaceful sanctuary where I was able to truly feel the Lord’s presence and commune with him.

I brought home a parish bulletin where, in the bottom corner, there was the beautiful quote you see above. It impacted me because, at the time, I needed more patience with others, particularly my kids.  

When I am patient with my children, I am showing them true love. Teaching them to be patient with each other is an even greater challenge. My mom taught me that when you have difficulty showing someone who mistreats you with “love,” you can always try to show them “charity,” which is an active type of love.

Being a “doer,” this appealed to me. I finished reading the rest of the quote, but the “patience with others” part struck me at that season of my life.

I tore it out of the bulletin and stuck it in one of my daily devotionals to mark a page that I refer to often. The Holy Spirit used this quote to uplift me throughout this pandemic.

When my family was isolated together at the beginning of quarantine, we had to show patience with one another – love and charity. During those early days, I was frustrated with myself learning new technology to teach kindergarten online. (Yep, you heard me correctly: kindergarten online. God bless those parents at home!)

It was very isolating, and I was impatient with Zoom interactions with my coworkers and students with whom I wanted to be interacting in person. I was frustrated with myself for overeating or overdrinking at times as a coping mechanism. I was frustrated with myself for being impatient about things getting back to “normal.”

Then one day, I reread this quote. The Holy Spirit told me to be patient with myself. This was big stuff. I needed to be gentle with myself and know that I was going to get through this time with God’s grace and love, just as I have gotten through every other difficult time in my life. Every time I reflect on a difficult situation in my past, God’s love for me and patience with me shines through in hindsight.  

God will always see us through; he is faithful. Show yourself some patience, as this means you have hope that you can learn, grow and change to be the person God created you, and only you, to be.

Lord, we thank you for the grace of patience.
  
Stacy Glynn LaMorte is a wife and mother of three children. She teaches kindergarten English in at Ecole Bilingue de la Nouvelle-Orleans and does bookkeeping part-time. She loves being with her family, traveling, exercising, reading, photography and gardening.