It's the first day of a brand new month and the last day of work for me until next week - Yipeeeeee! I'm off for a little trip to the coast of Alabama to escape the frozen tundra and soak in some rays for a few days with some of my favorite peeps. What a JOY!
I'm a big fan of JOY.
It's one of those things that starts deep in your soul and radiates all the way through until it gets to the outside. Joy is often confused with happiness but to me they are very different. Happiness seems to be all about what's going on on the outside, whereas the key to joy is that it's always a choice. You can have a good shot at making someone happy - in my case a well administered dose of chocolate would do the trick! - but you can't make them joyful; joy is a chosen, it's a significant commitment and a very distinct way of showing up in the world.
Don't get me wrong, there's a whole lot that's good about happiness, it's definitely better than many other emotional states! But happiness is reliant on circumstance, comfort and pleasure, joy isn't.
One of my all time favorite Bible verses says this...
"Be Joyful always, pray continually and in all circumstances give thanks,
fo this is God's will for you in Jesus Christ"
1 Thessalonians 5:16-18
What a wonderful invitation! God wouldn't have made it if we weren't able to achieve it, but I wonder how seriously we take it? And what would happen if we did? If we chose to be joyful, stay in close contact with God in prayer and always being appreciative - how would our lives and the lives of those around us be transformed?
Over the next few days I'm going to leave you with a daily dose of JOY to hopefully lift up your spirits and send you soaring! I'll do it in words and pictures and would LOVE it if you would add your comments about what's bringing you JOY!
Have a positively JOYOUS day :-)
No comments:
Post a Comment