I enjoy going to parties, especially gala or banquet type ones. You know the ones where you get all dressed up to support a great cause? Yea I love those!

But there is another type of party that I am often invited to and I try very hard to respectfully decline to attend. I admit that sometimes I fail and end up going. Sometimes I even throw this party. What kind of party am I talking about?

A pity party.

We have all been to pity parties. We have all thrown pity parties. But you know what? Those gala and banquet style parties I mentioned? Those are way better! We are entering the holiday season where we all will attend at least a few parties. These holiday parties are great too.

But a pity party isn’t so great. It doesn’t ever make you feel better. It just allows you to wallow in your disappointment, anger and/or sadness. They create an environment where we just feel so sorry for ourselves because things are just so hard on us. We want everybody else to feel sorry for us as well.

I for one don’t want anyone to feel sorry for me because my life is great. I am truly blessed. And you know what? You are blessed too. You may not always realize it, but you are. Your life is great. A very small percentage may not be great, but why must we focus on that small percentage? Why can’t we focus on all of the many blessings we have? Why can’t we focus on the greatness?

Our world continues to see many tragedies. People are killing other people. Others are dying from diseases. Still some don’t even have a roof over their head. There is a lot of bad in the world. But there is a lot of good too. We need to focus on the good and work to help fix the bad. Complaining about the bad will not fix anything.

We must always remember just how lucky we are. We must stop complaining about the small percentage of not so great in our own lives and start focusing on all the good. We must stop complaining about all of the bad in the world and start doing something about it.

So the next time you are invited to a Pity Party, RSVP No. Respectfully decline the invitation and go to a Blessed Bash instead.

At a Blessed Bash no one feels sorry for themselves. No one asks for anyone’s pity. You just accept full responsibility for your own actions and yes sometimes your mistakes. You accept blame when you are wrong. You don’t blame others for your inaction. You ask for forgiveness and commit to forgiving those who have wronged you.

More than anything, at a Blessed Bash you should remember all of the amazing things you have in your life. You are truly blessed. Sometimes it is difficult to see your many blessings and at a Pity Party it becomes impossible.

I don’t know about you, but I choose to attend the Blessed Bash. I don’t ever want to attend that other party ever again. It’s not fun and it’s not a solution.