Hope: the first candle.

I loved this article on the first candle of advent being hope

The lady in the story was struggling with impatience  and asked the monk what to do.....and the monk told her to cultivate hope.

"She told us she’d found this startling—she’d expected to be told she needed to cultivate patience. But hope? Yes: her impatience was an indicator that she had given up hope for change. And what that really meant was she’d given up believing that God would actually do what he’d said he’d do. Which, when you think about it, is a pretty dangerous attitude. One most of us indulge in daily."

Yes, we have troubles.  "But we exult in them, knowing that at the end of them is hope, and therefore we can hope too, because hope does not disappoint. Without that first hope candle, the rest—the peace, the love, the joy—they’re not coming."

I love how advent/waiting starts out with hope - hope in the Lord's birth, hope in His second coming, hope in His provision and hope that He will do what He said He will do.

The cure to impatience is not merely growing our patience but hope in the one who was patient with us.