Everyone loves Eeyore. Until you have to live with him! Find our how to survive in this humorous, practical book!
Everyone loves Eeyore. Until you have to live with him! Your Eeyore may be a depressed mate, a melancholy teenager or a morose mother-in-law. How do you love someone who constantly sees the glass as half empty? Find out in this humorous, fast paced, practical book! Bible studies and discussion questions are included at the end of each chapter.
Excerpt
Chapter One
“Good morning, Pooh Bear,” said Eeyore gloomily. “If it is a good morning,” he said. “Which I doubt.”
………………
“I shouldn’t be surprised if it hailed a good deal tomorrow,” Eeyore was saying. “Blizzards and what-not. Being fine today doesn’t mean anything.”
I have come to the conclusion that somewhere in our life we all need at least one Eeyore. This must be true or God would not have made so many of them. With a sigh, a little cloud and amazing regularity Eeyores settle into our Hundred-Acre-Wood and suddenly life is not quite as simple as it was before.
Kathy has an Eeyore. It's her Mom. It has been this way since childhood. Unfortunately, Mom is becoming more Eeyoreish with age. Most of the time, Kathy manages to respond to her mother's stream of negative comments in a kind, rational manner, but at times the negativism overwhelms her best intentions.
It was Saturday and Kathy was driving her mother to the store. The trip had started out well enough, and then Kathy shared news about her daughter, Valerie. She had won a position on the drill team. Mom countered that she hoped it didn’t make her vain or cause her to be morally tempted. That happened to so many girls these days.
Kathy changed the subject and remarked that the weather was unusually dry for this time of year. Mom agreed but quickly went into a discussion of a report she had heard on TV. The world would soon be coming to an end because of the Greenhouse Effect. All the scientist said so, and the dry weather proved it was true.
Kathy switched to the topic of groceries. There was a sale on tomatoes at Tom Thumb. Mom didn’t like tomatoes and was sure that everything she had on her list would probably be much higher this week.
Peppered in between these comments, Kathy heard about the fact that she was driving too fast, that her boss was making her work too much and that she was looking pale.
Kathy gave up. A brief silence followed and then Mom started talking about her little dog. She needed to prepare herself to loose Trixie. No, the dog was not sick. It was just that dogs did not live very long and if she got sick, Mom could not afford the vet bills.
Kathy didn’t know whether to scream or to pound her head against the steering wheel. It was going to be a l-o-n-g shopping trip! It is always hard to shop when you have Eeyore in tow.
You do remember Eeyore, don’t you? That gloomy gray donkey made famous by Winnie the Pooh? Eeyore was consistently negative, always sad and would never admit that the glass was really half full. Eeyore knew the glass would always be half empty and probably had a leak in the bottom as well.
I assume you have an Eeyore somewhere in your life. Most everyone does.
Eeyores come in both sexes and all ages. God has sprinkled them liberally in churches, families and businesses. Some are severe types with medication in hand and some are little gray clouds that sigh a lot. What makes them all Eeyores is the fact that they consistently see the negative, point out what others are doing wrong, drag their heels when new ideas are suggested and generally complicate relationships.
Living peacefully with Eeyore and learning to love him is not an easy task.
Your Eeyore may be a moody teenage son who is sure he will never succeed at anything. Or, maybe she is a mother-in-law who continually apologizes for taking up space on planet earth. The Eeyore God has put in your path may a mate be who forecasts doom and gloom when you want buy a new car. Or, he may be a boss who is continually finding the dark side of every possibility. However, one thing is for sure. You either have an Eeyore, or you are playing the role of Eeyore in someone else’s life!
Stuffed animals can be pricey, especially if they are well made, genuine copies of the original. But, human Eeyores are available for free and you don't even have to seek them out. If you don't currently have one, just be patient and one is sure to find you. Eeyores are so prevalent it is even possible to have more than one! Their plenitude suggests they are a needed element in God's ecology and proof that the Almighty has a sense of humor.
The original Eeyore lived in a quiet corner of the Hundred-Acre-Wood in a thistle patch that he seldom left. He sighed a lot and much of Pooh Bear’s energy went into trying to understand and cheer up this fellow creature who was so very different from himself. Pooh had a positive outlook and although he occasionally complained, “Oh, bother,” he trusted that tomorrow would bring sunshine. He was basically content with life and satisfied with simple, pleasant thoughts. Eeyore was not.
Like Pooh, you may have spent a fair amount of time scratching your nose and trying to figure out this fellow creature. Puzzling about how to communicate with, fix, cheer and understand Eeyore can be quite a task. That task is made considerably more difficult in a real world where opposites often attract. This strange attraction has created some very interesting marriages. It has also caused some very unhappy endings. But most of all, it fosters situations where two people look at teach other in rapt curiosity wondering how it the world the other could possibly be thinking, feeling or doing that particular thing.
I have known quite a few Eeyores in my time. Some were clients who came to my counseling office for help with depression. Those were easy. At other times Eeyore was someone I had to go to church with, work for or live with. Not so easy.
When I treat Eeyore for depression, the battlefield is outside myself. My concern and activity take place in a world where I am only an interested observer and coach. When I work or live with Eeyore, the battle comes home. My personal world gets frustrating and in the end I am forced to make the primary target of attention my own communication style, character growth and eternal reward. Ugh.
Yet, I must admit that life would be far duller without Eeyore. He may not be the life of the party, but Eeyore can be a reason the party is given. Eeyore is an opportunity to stretch beyond ourselves. He is a balance we need and often the source of good advice. His attitude may be primarily shades of gray, but that very somber tone can make the colors of life more vivid and welcome.
There is a use for everything In God's economy. He never wastes a detail or sends useless things to His children. Why, even manure is beneficial when applied in the right amounts to the proper places! It is only reasonable that everything in our life has a benevolent purpose. Even when He sends an Eeyore to be our very own.
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