Do you like parties?
I was planning one a few days ago. It was going to be a “pity party” and would have been a humdinger of a party at that! I have thrown these parties in the past. I remember that nobody came to this one but me, and even I did not want to be there! While mentally planning this terrible “party,” my mind suddenly went to a phone call I had received the previous day.
A precious young friend had called to tell me about her recent trip to Africa. Her words were, “It was an assault on all the senses…the sights and smells.” On the other hand, she described the native people as happy, content, and sweet.
Then, my mind went to last Sunday when a young woman told us of her trip to Haiti, from which she had just returned. Haiti is known as one of the poorest countries in the world, riddled with crime and unrest. She said, though, that the Haitian people are content with the smallest things, such as the gift of a pencil, a smile, or a touch.
My thoughts were really wandering as I thought back to a guest in our Sunday school who was a Holocaust survivor. He and his family had been taken from their home when he was a young child. Much of his family died in the death camps of the Nazis. He ended up living in a sewer for a time, with his only food being rats and bugs. His message was one of forgiveness, and his words and manner revealed he knew the meaning of it.
I tried to return my mind to my original plans. However, I decided to just cancel that pity party. My mind was no longer on “poor-me” time; it had turned to “how-can-I-say-thanks” time. When my thoughts became right, my feelings followed. Haven’t we all been there?
Someone once said, “If you are a thinking Christian, you will be a joyful Christian.” Happiness depends less upon our circumstances and more on our thinking. Dale Carnegie, author of the renowned book How to Win Friends and Influence People, said, “It isn’t what you have or who you are or where you are or what you are doing that makes you happy or unhappy. It is what you think about it.”
God’s blessings are too good for me to think on much else. I am cancelling those “parties” for the foreseeable future with God’s help. Will you do the same?
by Beverly Hyles
From the Mondays with Beverly blog. Reprinted with permission.
