Are you tempted to answer, "It all depends" or "In certain cases . . ."?
The temptation to be impatient or undiplomatic shrinks to unattractiveness when patience and diplomacy are spiritually understood—known and lived as more, much more, than just pleasant or polite behavior. The perfectly harmonious, noncombative, noncompetitive, spiritual existence that Christian Science reveals as the one real state of being is mirrored in true patience. This serene, God-derived quality can be expressed in many ways, including those called diplomatic.
When founded in an understanding of God, patience is Christlike. That is, it illustrates the unchanged, unchallenged relation of man to God—a spiritual link without gaps of space or time. Because it is God-derived, patience is natural. Squabbles, intergroup rivalries, interpersonal confrontations, can all be eased, abated, or eliminated when we accept this spiritual link and live in accordance with it. Patience works because it is, ultimately, of God—all power, all good, all influence.
