Feeling Sad?

Today as I walked home from campus, I was in a gloomy mood. You know those moods. They're the ones that sneak up on you so quickly and then take a while to go away. They're the ones that come when you are feeling overwhelmed, unproductive, worried, stressed, or selfish. Sometimes they come to me because I've already exhausted all the anger I can feel toward a situation or because I'm grumpy about something that didn't happen in an ideal manner. Other times they come because I feel like my efforts toward a noble goal are futile, or because I'm just tired of waiting for whatever it is I'm waiting for. Other times, like today, I'm attacked by a gloomy mood for no apparent reason.

After feeling gloomy for about 5 minutes, I decided to quit giving in to that mood. Instead of thinking about what I didn't have, I started thinking about what I do have. Prayer, counting blessings, and remembering happy thoughts can go a long way.

"And it shall come to pass in that day that the Lord shall give thee rest, from thy sorrow, and from thy fear, and from the hard bondage wherein thou wast made to serve." - 2 Nephi 24:3

I'm so glad that something encouraged me to begin counting my blessings, because when I got home I found the blog of a nice girl from one of my classes last semester. As I read a few past posts, I learned of how her mother passed away about a year ago. I was brought to tears as I read a few of her descriptions of memories of pain, because I remembered experiencing those same things when my dad passed away 5 years ago. Her descriptions of help from family, friends, and ward members warmed my heart because I remembered those same blessings in my life. Her humorous account of receiving two dinners in the same night and hurrying to clean up the evidence of the first made me laugh through the tears as I pictured all the many casseroles that filled our freezer for months. I'm glad that being in the mindset of counting blessings enabled me to feel the love of my Heavenly Father instead of just temporarily breaking down.

Continuing on the "counting blessings" theme, Happy 35th Anniversary of your marriage and sealing, Mom and Dad! It's a day late, but I'm so grateful for your faithfulness and for your righteous step in starting out our family right that February 7th in the Provo Temple.

p.s. Getting quickly out of that gloomy mood also helped me laugh-off of the huge fall I had while walking home. Silly ice. haha.