a toast to two marshmallows

patience has never been my forte.

yesterday i stumbled across this adorable little video {watch it! trust me}, which helped remind me the virtue of patience in learning to be patient.


today i was instructed {in a nut-shell}:

"be patient, becky. trust god".

by a highly reputable source -aka the big man upstairs

sometimes his spiritual wise pebbles dink off my stubborn head because his wisdom is greater than mine, and typically more difficult to apply.

so, after taking a few pebbles to the head i went on a quest for patience, which unveiled an abundance of awesome quotes.

i'm gonna let president uchtdorf and elder scott take it from here. 

Patience is:

• "a purifying process that refines understanding, deepens happiness, focuses action, and offers hope for peace.
• not passive resignation, nor is it failing to act because of our fears. 
• active waiting and enduring. 
• staying with something and doing all that we can—working, hoping, and exercising faith; bearing hardship with fortitude, even when the desires of our hearts are delayed.
• not simply enduring; it is enduring well!
• accepting that which cannot be changed and facing it with courage, grace, and faith. 
• being “willing to submit to all things which the Lord seeth fit to inflict upon [us], even as a child doth submit to his father.”⁸
• a process of perfection
• to abide in faith, knowing that sometimes it is in the waiting rather than in the receiving that we grow the most".

                                              -president uchtdorf-

"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. -president uchtdorf-
which leads to:
"as you walk to the boundary of your understanding into the twilight of uncertainty, exercising faith, you will be led to find solutions you would not obtain otherwise...even if you exercise your strongest faith, god will not always reward you immediately according to your desires. rather, god will respond with what in his eternal plan is best for you." - elder scott-

so while i don't always enjoy the times which demand my patience, or understand why i must endure something when i have been doing what he has asked, i have the promise from president uchtdorf that:

"often the most difficult times of our lives are essential building blocks that form the foundation of our character and pave the way to future opportunity, understanding, and happiness"

may i raise my {milk} glass
 to toast 
greater happiness and character,

 and the hope of a second marshmallow if i endure it well.