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It’s the middle of the afternoon. The house is quiet and clean. The sun shines, a gentle breeze blows, the fragrance of fresh—and put away—laundry settles over you as you sit in your favorite chair, sipping a glass of iced tea. The phone rings. It’s your huggy, buddy husband interrupting your reverie to ask you out on a special date night. He wants to take you to your favorite restaurant where he will thrill you with witty conversation, look adoringly into your eyes, and say, “Tell me all about your day, sweetie-pie…”

The house is not clean, the dog has just tracked in mud, the laundry is piled three-feet high, and you’re out of iced tea. Your husband calls to say he’s bringing the boss home for dinner.

Although reality is less than perfect we have no choice but to deal with it. Yet that doesn’t mean we have to like it. That’s where attitude comes in.

Good moods? We’ve got that down. Let’s talk about the bad ones. So much of what affects our moods is not in our control, which only adds to our moodiness because no one likes being out of control. Yet when we allow our moods to take over, everything falls apart.

We can see it coming. From the moment we get up, everything that can go wrong does. Sleepy children, broken appliances, slow traffic, and cranky bosses. The whole world can thank their lucky stars they aren’t the telephone salesman who had the gall to offer us a super-dooper deal to clean our carpets. Nasty reigns, and we like it that way. Life’s a moody mess.

Let’s join Evelyn as she gets herself worked up because everyone’s forgotten her birthday.

I’m old.

Evelyn pulled the dead geranium from its pot with extra vengeance. Out with the old, in with the new. She filled its place with a new, younger, prettier version of itself and patted the soil around its roots. The new flower stood tall, strong on its stem, vibrant and very much alive. She gave it a poing, making it lose three red petals.

So there.

Evelyn set the newly planted pot on the porch railing, kicked a few sprinkles of dirt off the floor into the flower bed, took off her gardening gloves, and sat on the swing with an audible, “Oomph.”

This was pitiful. Couldn’t she even bend down to pot a silly plant without having her muscles ache?

Obviously not. Especially not today when she was suddenly older than yesterday. She would never be fifty-eight again. I’m being silly. I’m one day older than I was yesterday, not an entire year.

Semantics.

She got the swing in motion and suddenly felt very alone. At breakfast no one had greeted her with shouts of “Happy birthday!” Piper, Lucinda, and Valerie had sipped their tea or coffee, eaten their oatmeal, and gone on with their lives as if today was like any other day. As the hours passed since then, the reality of their actions hit. And hit hard.

They forgot. Everyone forgot. She was alone.

She glanced at the empty space beside her. This was a swing meant for two. The lyrics to a Leslie Gore song intruded and Evelyn found herself singing. “’It’s my party and I’ll cry if I want to, cry if I want to, cry if I want to...’”

She let out a huff. “Nice pity party, Evelyn.”

There’s nothing wrong with throwing a pity party—occasionally. But when we’re in a mood, we need to figure out what brought it on. Don’t wallow. Pin it down. Determine if the mood is worthy of the time and energy, then face it and move on. Life’s too short—and pity-party decorations are too expensive.

How do we pinpoint the cause of our mood? Are we sick? Hungry? Tired? Frustrated? Angry? Sad? Or is it something beyond us? If other people’s actions are the cause of our moods, we have options: run, confront, talk, pout. Think ahead. Think of consequences. Figure out what works. But keep in mind, we can’t usually change others, but we can change how we react to them, and we can choose whether we’re going to let them get to us.

Then there are the moods that have been around awhile. Do they really need to be there? The God who created us knows our capacity for moods. We can’t shock or discourage Him (thank goodness!) In fact, He provided us with PMS – a Positive Mood Solution. When our lives are controlled by the Holy Spirit, that includes our moods. God can handle it, which means we can too. Through prayer. Through tuning into Him.

Remember we said that much of what affects our moods is out of our control. Guess what? God is in control of everything. Our earth isn’t crashing into the stars, the oceans aren’t drowning the land, and day and night happen pretty routinely. Oh yeah, and babies are born every day–-which must mean God wants life to continue. Our moods are all about choosing a perspective–ours or His. That’s where He can help. Talk to Him. Tell Him everything. Ultimately, He’s the only One who can make a difference in our mood.

Some moods are meant to be shared. The Rah-Rah Sister is the perfect friend to call if you need to be pulled out of a mood (just be prepared for a straight answer to the problem!) Yet other sisters can help too. This is where the true joy of sisterhood comes in. We implore you to find at least one sister to seek out at such times.

and he will gladly tell you. He will not resent your asking. But when you ask him,

be sure that you really expect him to answer, for a doubtful mind is as unsettled as a wave