There’s an old saying, “I was angry because I couldn’t afford new shoes. Then, I saw a man who had no feet.”
Most unhappiness is caused by the living errors, demons. They try to corrupt every human program. The seven tribes of demons are pride, envy, greed, gluttony, anger, lust, and sloth. All of them, in a way, are the same, weasling their way into our thoughts. Their first goal is to separate a person from God, then from loving their neighbors.
When we feel that we are being distanced from God and neighbor, we may try this: When anything makes us proud, envious, greedy, gluttonous, angry, lustful, or slothful, we immediately focus on the opposite.
When we think we’re superior to anyone, we realize that Christ’s humility is what saved us. Every time we feel envy, we think to ourselves, “I’m glad my neighbor has had such good fortune. When we are greedy or are tempted by gluttony, we ask The Loving Programmer for the ability to make sacrifices. Anger should prompt us to change our face to a smile, and get rid of the bad feeling. Lustful thoughts should be followed by an awareness of the subsequent damages. Sloth has to be opposed by activity.
If we spend a day following that advice, we will begin to develop the cheerful sanity that begins with counting blessings.
Since everything the demons want for us is a curse, we may consider practicing the automatic reaction of always counting our blessings. The cheerful sanity that begins with counting blessings is actually contagious.
Most who are going through a period of unhappiness make things worse by not counting blessings. When they understand that blessings are there to be counted, they, too begin to possess the cheerful sanity that begins with counting blessings.
Every blessing that we count is an arrow in the heart of the destructve demons working to corrupt our individual human programs.
