Virtue of the Month
February: Patience
"Patient people keep calm, in situations where they experience some difficulty." -David Isaacs, Character Building
Weekly Themes
Week 1: "Take a break"
Sometimes, to avoid waiting patiently for something we make ourselves busy and fill up every moment of the day with some activity or entertainment. There is nothing wrong with being busy. However, keeping oneself busy to avoid the suffering that comes with waiting cheats us out of an opportunity to grow and become a stronger person. It works like this: when we are constantly busy we miss the chance to develop a serene attitude, which is the attitude that helps us to be patient. Serenity or calmness is a condition for patience. Serenity helps us to be reasonable and objective, and not to be overwhelmed by our emotions. It helps us to wait, and to choose the right things to wait for. The goal for this week is to set aside a few minutes each day for a period of prayer or reflection. The school chapel is a good place to do this, but finding a quiet place at home serves the purpose also.
Week 2: Pursuing Your Goals
Patience requires having clear goals, and not just any goals. We need to discern what is important and what is not. This is part of developing the virtue of patience because one must decide what is worth being patient for. Aiming for something that is truly worthwhile helps us to be motivated to stay the course. Patience also requires realizing the limits of our abilities and setting reasonable targets. We must be realistic: am I capable of the goal I am pursuing? Am I able to wait for it? The goal for the girls this week is to re-evaluate a goal that was set at the beginning of the year. How are you coming along with it? Was it realistic? Are you being patient with achieving it or have you given up on it? This week’s goal is a good one for the girls to go over with their advisors.
Week 3: No Pain, No Gain
Computers have made our lives easier in many ways; however, the instant responses we get from computers have trained us to expect immediate results. Today, a blogger dashes off a few informal lines of text, posts the blog immediately, receives a few email responses, but is then forgotten. Once, poets like Shakespeare and Chaucer took up pen and paper, and through no small amount of time, effort, struggle and self-discipline, created masterpieces of the English language—that haven’t lost their importance hundreds of years later. Will blog entries be remembered hundreds of years from now? There is nothing wrong with wanting to take action and make things happen (and blogging!). However, when taking action is dependent on seeing immediate results patience is lacking, and worthwhile, ambitious goals might not be pursued. Forging important and good change usually takes time, sometimes a long time. The world needs patient people who are willing to do the work without seeing the fruits of their labours, even in their lifetime. This week ask the girls to focus on one subject area they are having difficulty with and redouble their efforts. This could involve: studying extra for a test, doing one’s homework more neatly, or giving more time to practicing an instrument. The idea is to choose one thing and give more to it than was originally planned. This may require giving up something pleasurable; for example, studying more for a test means having less time to watch TV or talk to friends
Week 4: No Complaints
No one likes the thought of suffering (it’s often the fear of suffering that disturbs us more than the actual suffering). However, setting out to avoid suffering puts one on a crash course with reality, because into each life a little rain must fall. The good news is that putting up patiently with difficulties has wonderful value both for the sufferer and for those around the person suffering. It is when we are challenged by discomfort, loss, and pain that we are pulled to transcend ourselves—to put aside our own needs and wants—and to look for help from others, and, importantly, see and understand that others need our help. The goal for the girls this week: don’t complain when something doesn’t go your way, or when you are asked to do something you don’t feel like doing. The girls can try “offering it up” as a sacrifice, instead of complaining.