Do you have a joyful heart?

I’m feeling pretty joyful today. I’m sitting with a warm cup of tea and there is snow falling outside. I have always loved snow, especially when I don’t have to go out in it! Since I live in the south now, it’s a treat to enjoy it for a few days. There is certainly the flip side to the snow- it’s cold, can be icy, and I probably need to clean off the driveway later. With all of that, all I can think is “oooh, how pretty”.

I am a positive person, I always have been. I generally wake up happy. I mean, I woke up so that’s a good start, lol. But seriously, I have always been the ‘glass half full’ kind of person. Your perspective on life is a choice. I can choose to see the doom and gloom or I can choose to see the goodness. I choose the goodness. I choose joy.

I can choose joy in moments even when things are falling apart. The past few years have not been the most stable financially, but I am now in a better position and no longer have those worries. When something happens, I think “what can I do? What’s a step in the right direction?”. It’s not me ignoring the bad things, it’s me coping with them. I can’t live constantly in a doom and gloom or really stressful scenario. I lose my joy.

I was in that exact spot several years ago. I had lost my joy and was not in a great place in life. Circumstances changed and it got more challenging and I lost a lot; a job, friends, the entire life I knew. I found resources in myself I didn’t know I had. I could see no other choice. I know most people wondered what I would do. What I did was figure it out. It wasn’t pretty or fun most of the time, but God showed up in my life in so many ways I can’t count. (or name)

Every night I would thank God for what I did have in that time. I still thank God every day for all the blessings I have in my life, a job, new friends, new opportunities. It’s not always roses, but all roses have thorns. The joy sometimes comes with things you gotta get through, do, or otherwise put up with, but all of life is like that. You get to decide.

Today, I choose joy. Will you choose joy with me today?