keeping perspective when i'm sick

It's been really hard the last two weeks or so--I've been in the process of "getting sick" but the expected cold/flu kept inching its way into my body. In spite of trying to get rest and take care of my body, I kept feeling stuck in this state of limbo between sick and healthy.

Of course, during this two weeks, any sin I could think of got blamed on the fact that I wasn't feeling completely healthy. If I lost patience with family or students, I justified it, thinking "I'm sick...I can't be the model citizen right now..." If I overslept and missed devos, again I justified it, saying "I needed the rest more than I needed to go to devos..." If I slacked on my responsibilities, I excused it by thinking "I'll get back to that when I'm better..." All of those attitudes are wrong. Psalm 41:1-4 says

1How blessed is he who considers the helpless;
The LORD will deliver him in a day of trouble.
2The LORD will protect him and keep him alive,
And he shall be called blessed upon the earth;
And do not give him over to the desire of his enemies.
3The LORD will sustain him upon his sickbed;
In his illness, You restore him to health.
4As for me, I said, "O LORD, be gracious to me;
Heal my soul, for I have sinned against You.

Instead of moping around and feeling sorry for myself, I needed to drag my unwilling body to God's Word and focus on the Lord's mercy and kindness towards me. I was not as sick as I could have been--trust me, the misery could have been worse. And the Lord knows my struggle, and if I weren't fully up to matching the trial, He wouldn't have given it to me. As verse 3 says, the LORD will sustain when I'm sick, and when I get better, it is His doing, not mine. My job is to go to the cross, asking forgiveness for my many sins to receive grace and mercy from my God and Father who is waiting to bestow it according to his infinite love for me. How does it glorify God if I complain through my most minor trials? On the other hand, how much better is it if I maintain the correct perspective of God's goodness and my sinfulness? Honestly, how can I act as if I deserve to be healthy? I don't! Me being alive and functional right now is the product of God's grace, lavished on a completely undeserving sinner. I need to remind myself of that every morning that I wake up...