IF WE WISHED TO GAIN CONTENTMENT, we might try such rules as these:
*Allow yourself to complain of nothing.
*Never picture yourself to yourself in any circumstance in which you are not.
*Never compare your own lot with that of another.
*Never allow yourself to dwell on the wish that this or that had been otherwise than it is. God
Almighty loves you better and more wisely than you do yourself.
*Never dwell on the morrow. Remember that it is God's, not yours. 'The Lord will provide.'
--- E. B. PUSEY (adapted)
LET OTHERS CHEER THE WINNING MAN,
There's one I hold worth while;
'Tis he who does the best he can,
Then loses with a smile.
Beaten he is, but not to stay
Down with the rank and file;
That man will win some other day,
Who loses with a smile.
--- Unknown
ALL ENCOUNTERS IN LIFE, EVERY PERSONALITY, EVERY INSTITUTION, every relationship, is a mixture
of the good and the bad. When we habitually focus on the bad, we are training ourselves in negativism. There is a secret cost
in such an outlook to one's spiritual and mental health. In my case, I woke up twenty years into adulthood to find myself
deeply schooledin serious negativism. That in turn, can bathe all of life in emotional gloom. When the habit continues ...
the dark glasses of criticalness can lead to long periods of melancholy and even to serious depression. --- Catherine Marshall
"Jesus said, "Cheer up!" *The joy of the Lord is your strength. *A happy heart is good medicine,
and a cheerful mind works healing, but a broken spirit dries up the bones. *Finally, brethren, whatever things are true, whatever
things are honest, whatever things are just, whatever things are pure, whatever things are lovely, whatever things are of
good report; if there be any virtue, and if there be any praise, think on these things. *The cheerful heart has a continual
feast. *Godliness with contentment is great gain." MATTHEW 9:2 LB; NEHEMIAH 8:10; PROVERBS 17:22, PHILIPPIANS 4:8,9 KJV; PROVERBS
15:15 NIV; 1 TIMOTHY 6:6 KJV
WHEN WE SEE OURSELVES IN A SITUATION WHICH MUST BE ENDURED AND GONE THROUGH, it is best to make
up our minds to do it. Meet it with firmness and accommodate every thing to it in the best way practicable. This lessens the
evil, while fretting and fuming only serves to increase our own torment. --- Thomas Jefferson
