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Situations occur every day to try to steal our joy. In the past few days, has anything happened to steal your joy? Will that situation matter five years from now? How much are our moods affected by what goes on around us? We get so caught up in the moment that we forget that we don’t have to choose blame or anger. We CAN choose a different way by choosing JOY!
“A joyful heart is good medicine…” (Proverbs 17:22)
Choose Joy.
Joy keeps us on an even keel while the roller coaster of life goes up and down around us. No matter what goes on, we don’t have to react to everything that life throws down in front of us. Life is less about what happens to us and more about the attitude we have towards what happens to us.
“Count it all joy when you fall into various trials…” (James 1:2)
Setbacks. How are WE handling them this week?
I saw a video of a kid who wasn’t affected by anything that life threw his way. He gets fired and thinks to himself, I was looking for a job when I found THIS one! He walks out of work and sees his car getting towed. So walks home. At home, he lies on a hammock and the sprinkler turns on and gets him all wet. He just enjoys the day.
Joy is a choice, just like our attitude.
This kid experienced some pretty frustrating circumstances! He could have gotten mad, thrown a fit, taken it out on everyone around him, and wallowed in pity; but he CHOSE not to do that.
Choosing joy might get the enemy to go pick on someone else.
The enemy will hit us with back to back situations that appear to be setbacks. If enough of them hit us in one week, we think that we are doing something wrong. When in the bigger picture we need to realize that it’s possible we’re doing something RIGHT and the enemy wants to take us out! So by choosing joy, we cause him to give up and go find someone else to pick on. It’s not as much fun to pick on someone when it doesn’t seem to affect them. Don’t be an easy target!
There’s a plan!
We can’t see the message while in the middle of the mess. When we zoom in to the tread of a tire and look at one of the ridges, it looks insurmountable from the perspective of 1/64th of an inch tall. But if we zoom out and see that the ridge is part of a group of ridges on a hardcore, high speed, race car tire. Then we say, “Oh, I get it. The ups and downs all worked together to create a way to move me forward and mold my mess into a message.” Stay focused on the fact that nothing takes your Father in heaven by surprise, He has a plan to work all things out for your good, so take it in stride, keep a good attitude and count it all joy!
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