LOSING
OUR PATIENCE

Topics: Patience; Self-control; Self-discipline; Temper; Waiting

References: Galatians 5:22; Ephesians 4:2; Colossians 1:11; 3:12; James 5:7

We are not a patient people. A survey of 1,003 adults done in 2006 by the Associated Press and Ipsos discovered the following:

•     While waiting in line at an office or store, most people take an average of seventeen minutes to lose their patience.

•     On hold on the phone most people lose their patience in nine minutes.

•     Women lost their patience after waiting in line for about eighteen minutes. Men lost it after fifteen minutes.

•     People with lower income and less education are more patient than those with a college education and a high income.

•     People who live in the suburbs are more patient than people who live in the city.

—Trevor Tompson, “Impatience-Poll Glance,” www.hosted.ap.org (May 28, 2006)