5 New Year’s Resolutions for Parents Working on Patience

1. Practice Solitude

Nothing helps patience more than practicing silence and solitude. These two spiritual disciplines are highly underrated in the Christian church today. Parents have overpacked schedules and may neglect this needed discipline. However, if they are serious about reaching their goal, it is best for them to set aside extra time, either in the morning or in the evening, to practice this. Create a designated space in your home to practice this. It could be as simple as an area of the basement or as small as an empty closet. God does not need much room to move powerfully within his people. Set a timer for twenty minutes and simply listen for God's voice. It will be difficult the first few times you do it, but it will be well worth it in the end. You may also find that you are distracted during this time. If this is the case, bring a journal with you and write down everything that comes to your mind. This type of "brain dump" will help you clear your mind, knowing that it's written down so you can tend to it later. The first few times you practice silence and solitude, you may hear nothing from the Lord. That's OK. The purpose of the exercise is not to get a revelation out of it but rather to wait on the Lord. When we practice waiting on the Lord, waiting on things in life becomes easier.

2. Relinquish Control

Part of our issue with patience is that we don't want to surrender our lives to God. We often want things when we want them, and this desire increases our chances of becoming more impatient. Impatience indicates we're not receiving something we want right away. Surrendering control of our lives over to God makes it easier to have patience since we know God is in control. When we take a step of faith and believe that God's timing is perfect in every situation, it's easier to practice patience and wait on God.

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3. Pray

As we encounter the Holy Spirit, he will point out areas where we need to practice more patience. Make a New Year's resolution to pray. Adopt Daniel's method of prayer by praying three times a day. Increase your prayer time in the morning to thirty minutes rather than ten or twenty minutes. Add time to pray during your lunch break and in the evening. By allowing constant interaction with God, it is easier to give things over to him. As we pray fervently for requests, especially those that are taking a long time for God to complete, it is easy to get impatient. By increasing our constant connection with God, we're able to release everything that's going on in our lives to him and resist the urge to try to fix it on our own. The more we pray and give over to God, the more patient we become, especially with relationships and other issues like health or finances.

4. Practice Needing Patience

Part of the reason why we grow impatient so quickly is because we simply don't have to wait. But impatience begins to grow when traffic or a long line at the store derails us from completing our to-do lists in the time frame we would like. Take time to practice patience. Make a resolution to choose situations in life that require patience. Choose the long line at the store. Make yourself wait and not take out your phone to entertain yourself while waiting. Seek to put your phone away for long periods. Enjoy the moments you have in front of you. When you put away distractions like phones and other screen devices, you will quickly find you have to wait longer to enjoy even the simple things in life. There's nothing wrong with waiting. Rather, it's what we do with the waiting that matters. The more we create discipline in our lives, the better off our patience will be.

5. Cling to the Word

Because we live in a world that doesn't require patience, we need to be reminded that God sometimes works on our behalf for years. Resolve to read all the prophets—both major and minor. Make a note of how many times God makes people wait. For example, Jeremiah 29:11 is one of the most popular verses encouraging people to follow their dreams. Yet, people don't realize in its context that the people waited many years with no word from God. Imagine living in a world where there was no Bible, no prophets to communicate God's message, just silence. This may have made many people impatient or confused because they did not understand what God was doing. Yet, God's silence paved the way for Jesus's birth many years later. Waiting led to our salvation! Study the prophets and discover how long God makes us wait. Sometimes, God makes us wait many years for wonderful things. God's timing is not our timing. We need to understand that if we're going to be more patient in life.

Although patience is one of the more difficult fruits of the spirit to attain, it is not impossible. By clinging to God and dedicating your new year to exhibiting these fruits of the spirit, you may find you are not only incredibly blessed by it, but you also bless others.