The Fickleness of Emotions

On Tuesday I went to our women's prayer that we have about once a month. It is just all of us foreignors/missionaries who are serving here in Rivne. It is a time for us to fellowship and pray together in English, both of which are things that we miss often in our daily lives.
I was surprised and touched by the warmth of greeting for me on my return from a month away. Everyone was so happy to see me and it made me feel like I had come home or that I had been away much longer than just that one month.
I had already been surprised on Monday by how happy the office was to see me--considering that they are going along just fine and really don't "need" me to be there.
So, on Tuesday night I went to bed feeling incredibly blessed to have these friends here. It helped immensly with my adjustments back.
On Wednesday, I woke up feeling sick and a little feverish. I knew I had a cold, but somehow overnight it had turned into a monster. I spent all of Wednesday laying on the couch and whining at my poor roommate (I didn't know it could be so much fun to whine! :D ). But by evening I was feeling very low and down. Useless. A little worthless. Here it is my first week back and I had already missed a day of work from being sick. My poor roommate is having to do all the work around the apartment and fix the meals and do the shopping and put up the Christmas tree by herself.
As I was laying there thinking that passing into oblivion would be much preferable to this misery I was praying about my attitude and God reminded me of how valued I had felt just the day before. How I went to bed thanking Him for these wonderful people that He brought into my life. And there I was, not 24 hours later, whining away and feeling useless and worthless because I had been stuck in bed for a few hours and not able to do the things I wanted with my day.
I can't say that it miraculously changed my attitude and I suddenly felt cheerful and happy. It did help me put things into perspective a little and remember that this was temporary, but those friends are not. I realized that I could in the least pray for them while I was laying there. Many of my friends are going through other hard things in their lives and I figured I might as well use my time on the couch to benefit them a little.
Just changing my focus from inward to outward made such a difference. I think I used to be much better at keeping the outward focus, but I have grown lax recently. I must remember to practice it more. That and counting my blessings. :| How appropriate for this season!