Day 345 - Joy

Often, when we think that we are teaching someone else, we realize that we are the ones that need the lesson. When I spoke at MOPS last week, I spoke partly about joy. Joy is something that I was able to find in all of the darkness that surrounded us. I learned that joy comes from what you make of your life, not what your circumstances are. It's your attitude, not your self-pity. I also learned that if you let others steal your joy, only you can take it back.

I needed my speech just as much as anyone else, maybe not at that moment, but I need it now. I am such a sensitive person and I easily let people rob me of joy. Tonight I realized that I have allowed people to take my joy and hold onto it. I thought I seized it back, but I didn't. It's funny how much harder it is to reclaim your joy when it's personal. Our financial situation was not personal, but my character, well that is. It's hard to move on from our hurts, I know. But we have to do it eventually or else it will us weigh down. I let go of my joy, I questioned myself, I doubted myself, and I was angry, frustrated, and upset. I thought that I forgave and moved on, but I let the hurt back into my life. I need to follow my words now, to take my own advice.


* Joy is a choice that we make a million times a day. Joy is centered on who you are and what you want your life to look like. There is joy in every corner, even in the dark. But joy fades fast when we let others control it, we start being ungrateful, we compare ourselves, or when we let our joy be driven by outwardly things. Being discontent makes us bitter, the opposite of joy. We really can only find true joy in ourselves and in God.


* When you decide to wrap you life up with joy, you choose to let go of the negativity that was robbing you and to live a life full of love and peace.


* My solution to being robbed of joy is for you to find your joy in who you are and what you can do. Not in what others do or do not do for you.

If I could yell at myself right now, I would tell myself to let the anger and hurt go. To stand up tall, move on, and find joy in loving the person that I know I am. I would remind myself that joy also comes from loving other people deeply. God gives me words, not just to benefit others, but also to learn from my own past, missteps, and triumphs.

Tonight, after some tears, I realized it's time to move on and take my joy back. We should never let people take it in the first place. This past year I felt more joy than I ever could imagine and now I want all of that back. Joy even in the darkness.

I never truly understood this verse until tonight. It gives me so much hope and understanding.

"You will face all kinds of trouble. When you do, think of it as pure joy. Your faith will be put to the test. You know that when that happens it will produce in you the strength to continue." -James 1:2-3 (NIRV)