But with frustrations comes a grand choice: to be joyful or to wallow in my troubles. Sadly, I've been choosing the latter, and I've been suffering from my self inflicted grumbles. I have chosen not to be joyful, and guess what? I'm not joyful...and it stinks, to be quite frank. I've been tired, irritable and lazy. Yes, I'm currently not feeling well at all, but that doesn't necessitate laziness. I have plenty of work that can all be done on my computer but instead I have been sitting doing nothing, mourning my hair and grumbling about my stomach.
Joy, like love, is a choice. Happiness is being in lovely circumstances and being content with that and being, well, happy. Joy is being content and happy in the good times and bad. Joy is understanding that God has a reason for putting you through whatever you are going through. Joy is seeing past the here and the now and looking to the eternal benefits of whatever is happening, even if we can't see those benefits right now.
I've been failing at being a joyful person.
But, since joy is a choice, I'm choosing, right now, to be joyful. I don't care that I've been failing, I'm not going to keep on failing. I am going to be content and happy. I am going to understand that God has some reason for the annoying, painful things that I'm going through. I am going to look past right now and understand that there are eternal benefits attached to these short term annoyances.
"A joyful heart is good medicine,
but a crushed spirit dries up the bones."
(Proverbs 17:22)
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Over and out,
~Emily
Oh I love this! Just what I needed to hear...thank you! :) Xx
ReplyDeleteOh I'm so glad, Gina! =)
Deletebeautiful post! i can relate, and i LOVE the pic!
ReplyDeletethanks for this post <3
So glad you enjoyed it, Nonii. =)
DeleteI needed to hear this :)
ReplyDeleteOh, Thank you, Abby. =)
DeleteThank you so much Emily. I think you are very brave to be so honest about your "weaknesses" for everyone to see on your blog, but I really appreciate it because they are my weaknesses too. This was a wonderful reminder that "joy" is a choice. Today (and tomorrow, and the next) I will choose joy. God bless you!
ReplyDeleteYou know, I didn't used to post much about my weaknesses, but the more I do the more I realize that it does a couple of grand things for me. 1.) It helps me to stay humble in the blogging world. It's easy to pretend that my life is always jolly and that I have things together...but my life isn't always jolly and I have nothing together. And 2.) It's incredibly therapeutic. =)
DeleteYes, even though I wasn't able to do too much today, due to my stomach, I was joyful, and that's wonderful. It's so odd how it seems almost impossible to be joyful sometimes, but as soon as I actually submit and simply say, "Yes, Lord, I will be joyful in where you have me," then God gives me the strength to do so.
Joy is so key! Thank you for this reminder, it's something that's been really promminent for me today. :) x
ReplyDeleteSo glad you were encouraged, Milla! =)
DeleteI really love the verse you used! <3 It is so easy to wallow with your own troubles isn't it? I'm starting to realize just how often I do it (D: ^_^oops) .... and it seems that you realize when you do it, which is HUGE! That just makes it so much easier to tell yourself to put on your big girl pants and to walk it off and , like you said, choose to be joyful. You really know what you are talking about. :) Have a fantastic day!
ReplyDeleteThanks, Natalie! God has been so gracious in helping me to identify when I'm having pity parties, which has been huge. Sometimes, though, getting those, "big girl pants," on can be awfully difficult, and it is only by His grace that we are able to do so. I'm glad you enjoyed this post! =)
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