Patience is widely recognized as a virtue. And so it is if it is active, not merely a passive proclivity. As the idle, improvident attitude attributed to Mr. Micawber, who was perennially waiting for something to turn up, it is not desirable.
Active patience usually implies expectancy, but also rightly includes perseverance and diligence, not lethargy or supine aimless waiting. One speaks of "exercising" patience—and what a good way of indicating the active nature of the right kind of patience! Both the Bible and Mrs. Eddy's writings frequently couple the word "patience" and its derivatives with words of action, such as strive, seek, persist, follow, run, work, and pray.
In his Epistle to the Hebrews the author admonishes, "Wherefore seeing we also are compassed about with so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which doth so easily beset us, and let us run with patience the race that is set before us, looking unto Jesus the author and finisher of our faith."Hebr. 12:1, 2: Mrs. Eddy, in the Christian Science textbook, Science and Health, writes, "Patience is symbolized by the tireless worm, creeping over lofty summits, persevering in its intent."Science and Health, p. 515;
