Consider yourselves fortunate when all kinds of trials come your way for you know that when your faith succeeds in facing such trials, the result is the ability to endure.
~James 1:2-3
But what about when the trials come at the same time one is experiencing PMS?
What's to be done?
My 47 year old hormones start acting up before my period.
I find myself getting hurt quicker and being more sensitive.
I ponder less on my blessings and more on life's irritants.
I battle with the urge to micromanage my children and I get easily frustrated with myself and my family.
Today is test day. (Ok, full disclosure: it started yesterday)
Negative feelings become my reminder to meditate and pray.
An annoyance becomes a trigger to look within myself to see where I am lacking, notwithstanding PMS.
The quicker I go within myself and skip my old pattern of finding a scapegoat for my troubles--the sooner I am able to go back to a relatively peaceful life...(relatively, being the operative word).
Having just birthed myself through this process hours earlier, the steps are still pretty fresh in my mind.
What To Do When Sh** Hits the Fan:
1. Remain calm and pray for guidance. Panicking serves no purpose. In fact, when I analyze my past foibles with dealing with sh**, I realize that my overreaction was just my own desire to distract myself from sh**. Overreacting and panicking delays proactive action. So does going fetal...but I am not totally against going fetal, but only as a reward (more on this later).
2. Stop referring to it as sh**.
It is a trial or a challenge that if met properly, becomes strength training for the heart, body and soul.
If we seek patiently, we find the seemingly ugly sich transforming into a thing of beauty.
3. Do not try to lash out, place blame and/or research on how the negative situation developed.
While that might be useful knowledge for the future, now is not the time for discovery.
Instead, decide on a plan of action based on what your calm prayerful meditation has led you to do. Then let it go.
While it may be tempting to stop living in honor of the challenge, all that does is give strength to the trial.
Keep living. Go out and get sushi. Drink hot sake.
4. Take action and go from there.
Don't assume to know how it will end, but have faith that if you do your best, God will respond.
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