The Perfecting of Patience!

October 2021

Walter Mischel conducted an experiment in 1970 with four-year-olds. He would leave one child in a room with a bell and a marshmallow. If the child rang the bell, Mischel would come back and the child could eat the marshmallow. If the child waited for Mischel to come back on his own, the child could have two marshmallows.

In videos of the experiment, you can see children squirming, kicking, hiding their eyes—desperately trying to exercise self-control so they could wait and get two marshmallows. Their performance varied widely. Some broke down and rang the bell within a minute. Others lasted fifteen minutes.

The children who waited longer went on to get higher education results. They got into better colleges and, on average, achieved more as adults. The children who rang the bell quickest were more likely to become bullies. They received worse teacher and parental evaluations ten years.

If it is raining outside, you may want it to stop, but you can’t control the rain. However, you can open an umbrella. An umbrella does not change the circumstances, but it changes you in the middle of the circumstances. The wetness is no longer controlling you. God’s grace opens up an umbrella during the rainy seasons of life so that we may overcome and have the victory even when everything around us is wet.

Believe God! Here is the umbrella in the middle of the circumstances! This, to many, is the hardest step of all. It is right here that so many prayers break down and so many things desired are never received. In James 1: 2-4 James encourages us to laugh in the face of trials because their purpose is to reveal our true position and patience will bring us to a better position.

Some sincere people desire things and endlessly pray for them, but never arrive at the point where they believe that they have received them. Hold on, those two marshmallows are worth the wait. Walter Mischel returned and the confidence of the individual child received its reward! Believe it, your heavenly Father will not let you down. Take out your Bible and read Luke 11:1-11.

David and Cherie Rodway