Down with the pity party

I remember a single young woman who once extolled the “virtues” of the pity party in a Sunday School class.  "Pity parties are actually good things," she said.  She compared the pity party to a release valve.  And expunging all that inner bad actually brings you closer to Christ, or so went her logic.

Anyone else hear fingernails on a chalkboard?  Such an abomination comprising old, defunct ways of thinking needs to be stamped out of existence before it infests the place like cockroaches.  But in the moment I decided to be diplomatic and hold my tongue.

Now that I'm not in Sunday School, I'm taking off the gloves (though I’ll still be a gentleman).

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The real 411 on the pity party

We all know the pity party scene.  You feel sorry for yourself because you can’t get what you want.  And hopelessness overwhelms you so much that curling up into the fetal position for a future filled with misery and sorrow seems the only option.

When you start to feel that way, you should have huge red lights flashing in your head.

That feeling is a warning you're on the wrong track.  Confronting disappointment is part of the mortal experience we all came here to have.  Another part is learning how not to be overcome by it.

There is always hope because there is always Christ

There is always hope because there is always Christ.  By following His example, you can overcome your difficulties rather than be overcome by them.

And when I say "follow His example," I'm not referencing stale Sunday School lessons about service or keeping the commandments.  I mean embracing a new way of thinking so that you can overcome the challenges of your life in the way Christ overcame His.

The Savior's example

When Christ walked on the water (hey, now that's new and different thinking), he invited Peter to follow Him.  The storm was howling all around Peter, but he acted in faith.

As long as he clung to old ways of thinking ("you can't walk on water"), Peter would stay in the boat.  But when he embraced a new way of thinking ("you can walk on water when the Master invites you to do so"), he saw that it worked.  That is, until he began to doubt.

When you feel the storms of life howling around you, you can surrender to that pity party or you can follow the Savior.

Can you see Christ shrinking into a pathetic little clod of pity?  I can’t.  Yet isn’t that what that pity party makes you?  What’s ennobling or inspiring about that?  Certainly no one benefits from that, least of all you.

If you can't imagine Christ doing that, what do you see Him doing?  I see Him renewing His focus on His mission.  I see him focusing on others instead of Himself.  I see Him living a different reality because He has a different focus.

That's why I can never accept the pity party.  It shifts your focus inordinately upon yourself.

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Your focus determines your reality

Feel trapped in a pathetic reality?  Then your focus is pathetic.  Your focus determines your reality.  When you focus inordinately upon yourself and your unfulfilled desires, you darken your reality.  Want to change your reality?  Change your focus.

The Master's life was meaningful because He filled His life with meaning.  He knew what He was all about, and that’s where He kept His focus.  Pity parties couldn't touch Him.

They won’t touch you either if you adopt new and different ways of thinking.  Moments of discouragement will always come; that's part of the mortal experience we came here to have.  But just because you encounter that emotion doesn't mean you have to surrender to it.

So this Valentine's Day, ride a new train.  Find a new reality by finding a new focus.  Look for someone you can lift.  Make a difference in someone's life.  Build or repair a relationship that is meaningful to you.  Let's all say, "Down with the pity party and up with new and different ways of thinking."