Several Ways to Make Yourself Miserable

These were in a devotional book by Elisabeth Elliot, Keep a Quiet Heart.

1. Count your troubles, name them one by one- at the breakfast table, if anybody will isten, or as soon as possible thereafter.
2. Worry every day about something. Don't let yourself get out of practice. It won't add a cubit to your stature but it mught burn a few calories.
3. Pity yourself. If you do this enough, nobody else will have to do it for you.
4. Devise clever by decent ways to serve God and mammon. After all, a man's gotta live.
5. Mike it your business to find out what the Joneses are buying this year and where they're going. Try to do them at least one better even if you hvae to take out another loan to do it.
6. Stay away from absolutes. It's what's right for you that matters. Be your own person and don't allow yourself to get hung up on what other expect of you.
7. Make sure you get your rights. Never mind other people's. You have your life to live, they have theirs.
8. Don't fall into any compassion traps - the sort of situation where people can walk all over you. If you get too involved in other people's troubles, you may neglect your own.
9. Don't let Bible reading and prayer get in the way of what's really relevant - things like TV and newspapers. Invisible things are eternal. You want to stick with the visible ones - they're where it's at now.