The moving van comes Monday.

After living in Wichita, Kansas for eight years, my family and I are moving to Indiana.

I have been trying to fulfill my current roles and responsibilities here with some decorum, but on Friday the 13th, I found myself yelling at the full-time sister missionaries.

They called when I was still trying to file grades and when I still wasn’t released from my demanding calling. I had spent most of the day trying to contact the moving company to confirm the van and failed to do so.

When the missionaries asked me to go visit an investigator right that minute, I bellowed: “Help me or leave me alone!”

That was a new low.

Where did I go wrong?

Yes, I had a lot of external pressures, but I didn’t do enough to manage my internal landscape. Since that day, I decided to forge a few mantras in an effot to keep me on course.

One. Take things one day at a time (if not one hour at a time). Two. Count my blessings, and Three. Find the humor in the situation.

I still find myself losing composure from time to time, but these mantras are keeping me from descending into an deeper levels of sorrow, anger and confusion.

I’m also trying to recall hymns and scriptures that help me maintain focus, gratitude and humility.

I also hope that I can keep a tender heart when someone bellows at me. No matter what they might be saying overtly, I might consider that their underlying message might be the same as mine that day. I should then help them–and if I absolutely have no resources to do so, I could at least cause them no harm.

What tools do you use to get through rough patches—including but not limited to moving?