I've realized that it is so easy to focus on the reality of your life and ponder on how things could have or should have gone. I've also realized that when you focus so much of the "what if's" of life and what's not going right or how you want in your life you seep out the joy that you could and should be basking in. We have to remember that we are in control of our thoughts and the way that we react to our life circumstances. I remember sometimes being so focused on emotions, or the circumstances of life and each time that I chose joy my entire outlook on the situation and the way that I responded to the situation was completely different from the times that I didn't choose joy.
Life in general is a work in progress, there are so many things that we could or would have changed. I like to believe that in spite of the things we wanted to change, the outcome of the situation in spite of allowed us to be who we are today. We often look at our mistakes all the time as setbacks and maybe that happens to be the case for some people...but how you look at your mistakes and setbacks is what truly matters. Are you preventing yourself from moving forward in life? Are you often condemning yourself? Are you attaching negative labels to your name? Or are you deciding that this day you will choose JOY?
Some of you may be reading this and saying "Life keeps hitting me back to back, when will I catch a break?" or "I've experienced and known nothing but a hard life...so why choose joy?" God's word says that weeping may last through the night but joy comes with the morning. Psalms 30:5 This means that soon there will come a season of joy for all of the sorrow you have endured. Faith is making the decision to choose joy in spite of what you see or feel.
My prayer today is that we subconsciously choose joy everyday no matter how we feel and no matter what may be going on in our lives. I pray that we choose to trust you completely God and that we also will choose to lay our burdens at your feet. I pray we experience your love forever and always.
With love,
-Yours Truly, Eb