The Healthy Spiritual Journey • November 2026: Patience. Perseverance. Passion.

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“Great difficulties may be surmounted by patience and perseverance." –– Abigail Adams

When patience and perseverance are joined to passion, human potential is almost limitless. First Lady, Abigail Adams, and second United States President, John Adams, were the first occupants of the White House. Love and passion brought them together, patience and perseverance shaped their marriage and helped to define our emerging democracy. Historical documents reveal how influential Abigail was in her husband’s political career. When John Adams was among Second Continental Congress delegates, debating which principles should direct our fledgling U.S. government, Abigail wrote to him about the importance of patience and perseverance. Their passion to do what was right for their family, for their community, and for the common good helped inform John’s leadership and our country.

Throughout history, there are examples of important achievements requiring years, and sometimes generations, of dedication to a cause. Building an enduring democracy is certainly laudable. Abiding religions require the quiet virtues of patience, perseverance, and passion to make positive progress in a world that hungers for love and kindness. Patience allows us to keep our emotions under control while enduring challenges without giving up. Perseverance is about maintaining our physical and/or mental effort through difficulties. Passion gives meaning to our efforts; it is the psychological fuel for our endurance. Daily, we have opportunities to harness patience, perseverance, and passion on this tiny planet that suffers from war, poverty, starvation, climate disasters, and injustice! 

When we were young, being a good human being and getting an excellent education required these virtues. From preschool to receiving that first paycheck, there were many decisions and paths from which to choose. We wanted to make the most of our talents, whatever they were. Though parents, teachers, mentors, and friends were there to help, we had to harness our own patience, perseverance, and passionate drive to achieve our goals. If we can understand that our work is what we are called to do and find a way to help others along the way, we might find ourselves living our best lives. Patience, perseverance, and passion naturally follow when we are loving our neighbors as ourselves.  

With the passage of time, graceful aging, quality of life, social connections, and leaving a legacy become more important. As we grow older, nature may have some lessons to teach us also. An acorn falling to the ground does not become a mighty oak overnight. It patiently grows, season after season. In a similar way, persevering with the energy of God’s love adds to our wisdom and generosity. There is a Greek proverb: “A society grows great when its elders plant trees whose shade they will never sit in.” That’s the definition of altruism. Leaving the world better than we found it is an aspirational goal for most of us – whether by planting trees, raising a good family, or redeeming a social situation. Patience, passion, and perseverance are simple virtues that we can use as we work on those goals. Love is patient. Love perseveres. Love can be passionate. Love is kind. Love is God shining out from within us.

In God’s love,

Lanny F. Wilson, MD

"Love is patient; love is kind…”  –– 1 Corinthians 13:4a