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could be out with friends having a good time, or lying on the sofa watching television.
    Ruth had a spacious and beautiful home that she should have been expressing gratitude to God for as she cleaned. She could have been enjoying all the nice things God had provided for her, but she was blinded by her bad attitude and self-pity. Her mood got worse as the day went by, because attitudes and moods are connected. By the time her family got home, she was so upset that she began to find some fault with each family member. She told her husband that he didn’t help her enough, even though he had a job that required a lot of him physically. She told her son that he was always messy and only made more work for her. Her daughter was chastised for not trying harder in school. Even the dog got into trouble for getting water on the floor while trying to drink!
    I well remember days like this when I let a self-centered, self-pitying attitude ruin my day and cause me to be cranky with my family. I can assure you that whatever I have to do to maintain a good attitude now is worth it. It is easier on my health and everyone around me, as well as making life enjoyable.

Attitudes to Avoid
    Because I have a lot of experience with self-pity, it is one of the attitudes I definitely avoid, and I encourage others to do the same thing. Self-pity is truly pitiful; it is actually idolatry, because we are turning inward and idolizing ourselves. We think incessantly about ourselves and all the ways in whichwe are mistreated or disadvantaged. If we truly look at what others have, there are plenty who probably have much less than we do. When we allow our mind to rotate round and round on all the things we don’t like about our lives, we have no peace of mind.
    Self-pity is truly pitiful.
    I read about a study Duke University did on the subject of peace of mind. There were several factors listed that contributed to mental and emotional stability, but two things really caught my attention: choosing not to waste energy fighting against things you cannot change and refusing to live in self-pity. Both of these decisions helped foster peace of mind and contributed to a happier life. 4
    Your life may not be perfect, and perhaps you’re not as appreciated as you should be, but feeling sorry for yourself will never change it. Use your energy for something useful instead of useless. Self-pity is a trap. It is like being in a prison in solitary confinement. All that is in our thinking is how bad off we are. We live in the darkness of selfishness and fail to see how truly blessed we are in many ways.
    An impatient attitude is another bad attitude to avoid. It brings a lot of stress into our lives, because the simple truth is that we all have to wait on things we want and desire, so we might as well learn to wait patiently. Here is a short story that gives us a hint about how to do it.
    A man observed a woman in the grocery store with a three-year-old girl in her basket.
    As they passed the cookie section, the little girl asked for cookies and her mother told her no. The little girl immediately began to whine and fuss. The mother said quietly, “Now, Monica, we just have half of the aisles left to go through; don’t be upset. It won’t be long.”
    Soon they came to the candy aisle, and the little girl began to shout for candy. And when told she couldn’t have any, she began to cry. The mother said, “There, there, Monica, only two more aisles to go, and then we’ll be checking out.”
    When they got to the checkout stand, the little girl immediately began to clamor for gum and burst into a terrible tantrum upon discovering there would be no gum purchased. The mother patiently said, “Monica, we’ll be through this checkout stand in five minutes and then you can go home and have a nice nap.”
    The man followed them out to the parking lot and stopped the woman to compliment her. “I couldn’t help noticing how patient you were with little Monica,” he