Today we were with Gabriela and Zdravko and Sister Ezard with the Self Reliance--Financial program to discuss budgeting. We watched the video of President Uchtdorf as he told the cute story of the 4-year olds in the “experiment” to wait and eat one marshmallow. They could either eat one marshmallow now or wait for 15 minutes and get a second marshmallow and eat them both. Only 30% of the children waited.
President Uchtdorf said “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. …God’s promises are not always fulfilled as quickly or in the way we might hope. …Patience means staying with something until the end. It means delaying immediate gratification for future blessings. …The work of patience boils down to this: keep the commandments; trust in God, our Heavenly Father; serve Him with meekness and Christ-like love; exercise faith and hope in the Savior; and never give up.”
Gabriela told the time when her 4-year old son got a “Kinder-Egg” with the surprise inside. She asked him if he wanted to open it and he said he wanted to wait until they got home. She kept offering him reasons to open it up because she wanted to see the prize too. But each time she encouraged him to open it up he would give a different reason for not opening it up—he wanted to wait.
· Mom: “Don’t you want to see what kind of toy it is?”
· Son: “I don’t want to open it now.”
· Mom: “Don’t you want to eat the chocolate?”
· Son: “It will make my mouth and fingers messy with chocolate in the car.”
· Mom: “But we have a napkin to clean you off.”
· Son: “The pieces will fall in the car.”
· Mom: “But you could open it on top of a napkin and save the pieces from falling.”
It finally turned out that he just wanted to wait and open it in his room and play with the toy in his room. She felt embarrassed that she had tried to get her 4-year old son to do something too quickly for him.
When I heard Gabriela’s story I thought “what a good example” of being patient that our family would appreciate. We all need to be more patient. Patient with ourselves as we try to become better. Patient with others who do not meet our expectations or don’t do what we want them to do. Patient with the Lord, in giving us a spiritual witness of the gospel, in blessing us with something we want “right now,” or in removing the problems in our life. With patience will come the bigger blessings because we have waited faithfully on the Lord and can recognize other tender mercies along with way.
