Any time I got impatient growing up, I was swiftly reminded that patience is a virtue. My parents, youth group sponsors, teachers and any other well-meaning adult would make sure that I knew patience was a virtue. At the time, I just rolled my eyes, but recently I've come to be extremely grateful for that advice.

My mom and I flew to Phoenix, Arizona this past week to visit family. We landed around 10:00 p.m. Pacific Standard Time, which is three hours behind Eastern Time. In Ohio, which my body was accustomed to, it was 1:00 a.m.

I was exhausted.

After we gathered our bags, we headed for the bus that took us to get our rental car. My mom had made arrangements ahead of time so we should have been able to get our car within 10 minutes, 15 tops. In and out was the plan.

We stepped in line with four people ahead of us. It was 98 degrees, and I was thirsty. My contacts were hurting my eyes, and I was sweating. It was miserable.

To make matters worse, the people in front of us were having some troubles, and the Fastbreak line, which was designed to eliminate the wait, was not moving very fast at all. In total, we probably waited for about half an hour. (Admittedly it really wasn't that long.)

While we waited for the people in front of us to finish, the line behind us continued to grow. I could tell that some people were frustrated, and other people were tired.

But after about 20 minutes, a man behind us left the line and walked up to the front counter. At first he just looked at the keys hanging behind the counter to see if there were any names on them. He walked away for a minute or so, and then walked right back up to the counter to say something to the man who was working.

I didn't quite catch what he said, but he was not very happy about having to wait in line. His comments weren't really received because he ended up storming back to his place in line, and the process didn't get any faster.

A few minutes later, another man in line decided he ought to say something, too. I don't know if he was encouraged by the first man's “assertiveness," or if he just felt like being rude. But he yelled, from his place in line, that we shouldn't have to wait this long in the Fastbreak line. He also called the guy a loser because it seemed like there weren't any cars available, and I guess he thought that was why it was taking so long.

This 60-year-old man calling a rental car agency worker a loser because the line wasn't moving at a satisfactory pace made me cringe. (My mom pointed out the fact that obviously the guy wasn't a loser if he didn't have any cars because that would mean people had rented all of the cars they had.)

I suppose it was a bit annoying that the Fastbreak line wasn't moving very fast. And it was a little frustrating that the agency only had one man working behind the counter.

But why in the world did those two men feel that it was their place to take it out on the man working to get them through as fast as he could? Why did they feel that it was their place to say anything at all?

Their comments were not helpful, since they didn't result in getting a rental car any faster. They made those comments just because they could.

But if we take a second to think about the fact that this guy was working at 10:00 p.m. all by himself, with a line of impatient customers, we'd have a lot of compassion, and we'd calm down.

And that's what those two men should have done. Instead of focusing on what they felt entitled to, they should have taken a step back and realized that even if they say something, the process isn't going to speed up.

They should have realized that patience is in fact a virtue. Patience allows you to keep your cool and not look like a jerk who yells at the rental car agency worker.

So, learn from their mistakes. The next time you're standing in line, tired and frustrated, and you feel like yelling at the thing that's slowing you down, stop. Take a moment and think about whether or not your comments will be helpful to the situation. If they are, share them in a respectful way. If they're not, keep your mouth shut and stand in line like everyone else.