Monday doesn't have to be blue

"I HATE MONDAYS!" "Why is the weekend so short?" "Is it really only Wednesday?" "T.G.I.F." Who hasn't wished that the weekends were longer and the workweek shorter?

Of course it's one thing to feel that way occasionally, but quite another to feel depressed all the time about the inevitability of Mondays. If you're feeling this way, then you'll identify with a public school teacher who was unhappy in her job and felt a deep sense of depression that would lessen on weekends but would escalate on Sunday nights. On the last day of any school vacation, the depression would be almost overwhelming. She knew that those feelings weren't good for her, or for the children in her classes, and she prayed about them for quite some time. But the depression didn't lift.

One night, at a Wednesday evening testimony meeting at the Christian Science church she attends, she recalled a testimony she'd heard there a few years earlier. A man told of how he'd been struggling with depression and sorrow. One day his daughter-in-law lovingly told him that he had a responsibility to express joy. It wasn't a choice, she said. Joy is a quality of God, and as the likeness of Soul, God, it was natural for him to express joy. He took her words to heart, and made the effort to be joyful. In no time, the depression lifted, and he was soon able to go about his normal activities.

The teacher realized that she, too, had a responsibility to be joyous, not just on the weekend or during school vacations. She began to feel a little less depressed, but was still expecting total freedom only if she changed jobs. She thought only changed circumstances could bring her happiness instead of realizing that joy was already part of her being. She prayed more deeply to love things of Spirit, to see her life in terms of the qualities she expressed and also qualities that she could perceive in the children in her classes, in other teachers, even in the school system. Intelligence, order, kindness, patience, love, and wisdom were some of the qualities she looked for in herself and others.

As her thoughts focused less on dissatisfaction with her work and more on God's presence in her life, she became more interested in spiritual study. Early one Monday, she was lying in her bed when she realized how eager she was to get up to read the weekly Bible Lesson from the Christian Science Quarterly. This was a real change in her thoughts about Mondays. She sprang out of bed and began the day, the Lesson, the week … and the healing. This little ray of light began to disperse the darkness of "Blue Monday."

Her work began to be happier, and she began to be a better teacher. The days weren't defined as "the beginning of the work week," or "one more day until vacation."

Then, quite unexpectedly, she was asked to be the department chair for foreign language teaching in the school system. The new position meant teaching part time and overseeing the teaching of foreign languages in 11 schools. She happily accepted the assignment.

Each day presented something new. She felt a renewed sense of creativity and looked forward to her daily activities. After a year in this position, she realized, with enormous joy, that she was no longer seeing one day as any better than another. She felt a daily sense of joy as she went about whatever she was doing, whether it was going to school, supervising, going to church, or visiting with her grandchildren.

The ever-presence of divine Love had lifted the burden of depression and had wiped out any feeling that good could happen only on the weekend or that the workweek had to be dreary.

So if you're dreading Monday or longing for Friday, take some time to get to know God's love for you, and be sure to affirm that it's not just right to be happy; it's a responsibility.