Circumstances and Attitudes

Tomorrow's Primary lesson is a lesson that I could have used a few days ago, Joseph being sold into Egypt, the purpose of which is "To teach the children that even though we may not always be able to control the things that happen to us, we can control our attitudes."

This last week, I've had experiences that I felt were out of my control, and I let too many of them negatively affect my attitude. I realize now that I should have been more like Joseph. His family put him through far worse things than my family ever put me through, yet he was better to his family than I was to mine. As I said recently, apologies are in order, and so is a change of attitude. I could stand to be more serene and more accepting and understanding of circumstances beyond my control. All of these things that bother me are only temporary anyway. Twenty-thousand years from now, these events aren't going to bother me (unless I mishandle them and somehow fail to repent of that within the span of twenty-thousand years), so why should I let them bother me now?

Some things matter; other things don't. Minor inconveniences and final essays fall firmly in the category of things that don't matter and things that I shouldn't let affect my attitude.