Tonight, while reading Keep a Quiet Heart by Elisabeth Elliot, I came across a great chapter. It was pretty great, so I'm going to write it out here.
Several Ways to Make Yourself Miserable
1. Count your troubles, name them one by one-at the breakfast table, if anybody will listen, or as soon as possible thereafter.
2. Worry every day about something. Don't let yourself get out of practice. It won't add a cubit to your stature but it might burn a few calories.
3. Pity yourself. If you do enough of this, nobody else will have to do it for you.
4. Devise clever but decent ways to serve God and mammon [wealth]. After all, a man's gotta live.
5. Make it your business to find out what the Joneses are buying this year and where they're going. Try to do them at least one better even if you have to take out another loan to do it.
6. Stay away from absolutes. It's what's right for you that matters. Be your own person and don't allow yourself to get hung up on what other expect of you.
7. Make sure you get your rights. Never mind other people's. You have your life to live, they have theirs.
8. Don't fall into any compassion traps-the sort of situation where people can walk all over you. If you get too involved in other people's troubles, you may neglect your own.
9. Don't let Bible reading and prayer get in the way of what's really relevant-things like TV and newspapers. Invisible things are eternal. You want to stick with the visible ones-they're where it's at now.
Clearly, she using sarcasm. No one really wants to make themselves miserable. But so often we (at least, I) do these things subconsciously. I often get caught up in complaining and only looking out for myself. But it's those times where I take my focus off myself and look around me to see if there's a way I can help someone else that I have true joy. Looking out for self really does only lead to being miserable. I am so grateful for women like Elisabeth Elliot who will point out this kind of thing, because other wise I probably would not be thinking about it. I would like to encourage anyone reading this to remember this and learn to focus on eternal things and other people's needs rather than their own.
