Moment With Betty

This week l want to talk about the virtue of Patience.

Did l hear you ask why, yes why not, considering what is happening in Lagos today with the restrictions emanating from COVID-19 pandemic?

Let me start by defining the word patience. From google: Patience is the ability to endure difficult circumstances such as perseverance in the face of delay; tolerance of provocation without responding in annoyance/anger; or forbearance when under strain, especially when faced with longer-term difficulties. 

But for me, patience is a virtue which we need to imbibe to be able to have some sort of peace and sanity in our lives. It is a virtue which can be achieved better with the virtues of hope and humility.

So yes, Patience is the capacity to accept or tolerate delay, problems or suffering without becoming annoyed or anxious, but for me patience it is not just that but, how you act or behave while you are waiting patiently. The question therefore is, do you anxiously with desperation or do you wait calmly hoping and humbly believing that whatever phase you are experiencing at that moment will soon pass by.

 Take for example what is happening in Lagos with the lock down because of the pandemic. We all know that nobody or government will want to put the economic activities into jeopardy or on hold if it was not necessary. This lockdown started in Europe and the Western world and China because the virus started from there but today, they are gradually overcoming the pandemic but this is not the case in Nigeria particularly, in Lagos because we are too impatience, too anxious to hit the road and sadly though, without taking the necessary precautions or observing the stipulated guidelines and the result is the price that we are paying for in Lagos. We are the worst for it. 

 We were all looking forward to a total relaxation of the lockdown last week but that didn’t happen because of the hike on the Corona virus infected patients. So, what now? should we have been observing the simple guidelines, the churches and mosques would have been opened by now and probably, the schools too.

Today we all now see the reason why we should have exercised some kind of patience during this period of time. It is really important for us to be patient in all spares of our lives. Be it at our workplace, families, and marriages and even as citizens of Nigeria. With a little patience, we can build a healthy team culture, make smart decisions, make more rational choices, achieve a better mental health and of course focus on our long –term goals.  

We need to exercise some kind of tolerance as human beings, accommodate some sort of sufferings when it comes our way or problems and believe with humility that it is only a phase in our lives that will pass away. Most importantly, we need to be hopeful that the future will with conviction turn out better and from a spiritual angle, it is a way to practice our faith.