always cheerful

.....NOT!!!!  That is one thing I wish I had the gift for.  Always keeping the bright side of situations.  But unfortunately I don't.  Take the other night when I said I made dinner?  Well as the night progressed and the meal was presented I felt more awful and more awful. It was clear to me that me making dinner was a bad idea.  Being on my feet that long and stirring and mixing, and cooking and baking.  My body wasn't ready for it and I pushed it.  All these thoughts came to me about how I had secretly hoped that making dinner would show me that I was not as sick as I thought I was.  And now those thoughts were dashed.  I had set myself up for it.

As I lagged over my plate to finish the last bite my husband said, "You should go rest now."  I slugged away and mumbled dolefully, "I'll NEVER be able to make dinner will I? EVER!!"  and my husband said, "Not with that attitude you won't."  I wanted to go off and say, "It doesn't even MATTER my attitude, all that matters is how my BODY feels."  Ho-hum, woe is me.  But I did get his point.

Whenever I have this kind of attitude, a little prickling hits me in the mind reminding me of the verses in Proverbs about how good a joyful heart is for your PHYSICAL body:

"A joyful heart makes a cheerful face, but when the heart is sad, the spirit is broken." Prov. 15: 13
"A joyful heart is good medicine, but a broken spirit dries up the bones." Prov. 17:22

It's hard to do a one-eighty and immediately turn to joy but I do pray that God will help me in those moments.  Because having a joyful attitude DOES make my body feel a lot better, even when I'm feeling crummy.  When I'm at my worst (attitudinally) I often will start thinking of all the blessings God has placed in my life a that moment.  It helps but I confess it doesn't always cause the full change it should.

But I think we should try in those moments of being "down-on-ourselves" for things we obviously can't change about our physical state, to CHOOSE not to dwell on them.  We have that choice.  You can choose to have a pity party or you can try to make lemonade out of a lemony situation that isn't going to change.  You can pull yourself out of it by consciously making the choice to be grateful, or thankful, or joyful, or even better yet - choose to focus your mind on helping someone else who might be struggling.  Sit down and send them an email or snail mail with some encouraging words.  This takes the focus completely off of you and your slimy pity pit and instead showers someone else who might be in the "pit" with a glimpse of cheerfulness.  I'll tell you, it does wonders for me.  Because I see others who struggle with things similar to me and others who struggle with things different from me but I know we all share the same propensity -- the propensity to feel discouraged and I don't know anyone who would say that a kind word or two or fifty didn't help lift their spirits.

So I guess I say all that to mean, when you feel down on yourself, take a moment and send me an encouraging email.  Okay?  We'll all benefit from it.