Leadership: Patience & Compassion

These two principles are so closely related that they are being studied together. Make sure to read both.

Compassion

Have you ever been telling someone about something you are very excited about or something that
is difficult in your life only to find them staring at their phone and giving an occasional half hearted,
“uh huh”? How did you feel? On the other hand, maybe you were having a really rough day and
someone went out of their way to be kind. Maybe a loving hug made you feel better.  
Have you seen someone down trodden and in need of assistance and desired to help and lift them up?
Maybe someone in your family was sick and you wanted to help make them feel better. Compassion.
Having a desire to help and comfort others. Taking the time to listen to someone. Taking the time to
love someone.

This book can help younger kids to understand compassion. After watching this you could ask your
children how bear’s friends showed compassion towards him.

If you want to learn more about how to be compassionate you could look at this link.

You could also do your own Google search on the word compassion and see what you find.

Christ is one of the greatest examples of compassion. His love for everyone is unbiased. He gave his
very life for all of us, young and old, poor and wealthy, male and female. Read Mosiah 15:9. I encourage you to read this visiting teaching message centered on the compassion and kindness of Christ. You could just read a few of the paragraphs.  

How can you become a more compassionate person?

Parents, here is a link to a family home evening lesson that you could do on compassion.

More Resources:

Here are more resources that might inspire you and that you can study from according to how you feel
prompted. Feel free to add to them.

• Children's song about compassion
• Movie about a family that see compassion in thousands of people that want to help with research for childhood cancer.
• Conference talk on compassion.
• The newly released movie “wonder” is a beautiful story that helps increase compassion for others.
• The compassionate young boy -a story.
• Story from “The Friend”.

Patience

Sometimes we think of patience simply as being able to wait a long time for something.  It is so much
more. Elder Uchtdorf explains patience in this video

You can use this video to help younger children understand patience better.

We often find ourselves in a such a hurry that we forget to be kind.  We live in a world where it is so
easy to get what you want and to get it quickly.  Here is a song that can help to remind us of the
important things in life when we feel tempted to lose patience.  We need to be patient with others as
God is patient with us.

This week practice patience with your friends and family.  Practice patience with yourself. You will
notice that as you try harder to act in compassion and patience that your home will be a safer and
more loving place.  Everyone in the home can influence how each day goes.

As individuals or as a family you could make a heart chain as a reminder of successes in being patient.  

• To make a chain link heart, cut a strip of construction paper 2 cm wide and 30 cm long. Fold it in half. Staple it 0.5 to 1 cm above the fold to make the bottom point of the heart. Open the paper so it makes the shape of the letter “V.” Bring the outside edges of the V together to form the upper curves of the heart. Staple these ends together 0.5 to 1 cm from their ends to complete the heart.
• Start your chain with one heart-shaped link. On it, write “God loves you.” Tell your children one of the ways God shows His love for us is by being patient with us.
• Each time you or someone else shows patience or compassion, add a heart to the chain and write the thing that was done on the piece of paper.  

Here is poem that could be memorized as a reminder to be patient:

“The caterpillar knows it is going to be a butterfly, it is patient in its journey.  Not all of us are born with
the natural instinct. We do not come into this earth, knowing we will grow wings.  But give yourself time.
You must first learn to climb. -Belle Jar