Joy like sunshine.

At the start of this new year I've been doing a whole lot of thinking. And a lot of that is about my attitude. Every year comes with a wonderful opportunity for more chances every day to make yourself better; to get a few steps closer to being who God made you to be. And this year, I want to take full advantage of that. One area of that in my life is being purposefully joyful.

This past year came with a lot of changes. With several family situations & graduating & leaving friends & family to go to college, I encountered quite a few lonely & sad days. I normally don't consider myself to be a sad person, but I really started hitting some days where I just felt really sad. That is not who God made me to be. God wants me to be happy & experience His joy every day. I can't even explain all the joy that comes from knowing what Jesus has done for me, & how much He loves me, but sometimes we get so caught up in the little problems & temporary stresses that we tend to forget that. But this year, I'm making steps to try & fix that.

I heard a few days ago about a project to write down every day something that made that day awesome. Since I blog (obviously) & keep several other journal type things, I like to be able to look back & relive certain feelings I had. And why should those not be the best parts of my day, every day this year? It sounded like a great idea to me, so that's what I've been doing. And even these past few days being at home not doing all that much have had moments that just made that day awesome, & made me thankful for everything the Lord has given me. This is already, only one week into the new year, starting to affect my outlook. The thing is, things could always be worse. This is something I try & remind myself in basically any situation I face. There is always someone who has it harder than we do, so we need to just take where we're at, give it to Jesus, & trust that He will take care of us, no matter how big it is. So, there are always going to be little moments in every day that the Lord will give us to remind us of His love & the joy that comes from knowing Him.

I don't know about you, but I really like to be happy. And since happiness can change, we can't always control that. But we can control joy. Joy is deeper, & constant. If we focus on the blessings in every situation, God will always show us how good we've really got it with Him. So, I am committed this year to having joy. And realizing that joy, every day. Some days will require seeking it out. Some days it will be as obvious as sunshine. There will be rainy days that require a little more depth in the seeking, but even when we can't see it, the sunshine is always there. So is joy, if we look for it. No matter what the days bring this year, I want to make it a point to purposefully see how good God is. To just soak in His presence, & experience the joy that He shines into my life through just being who He is. I encourage you to do this also, to really focus on the good things. To focus on the blessings of this life, because friends, we are so immensely blessed. So let's make this a year to realize that every day. And let the joy & resulting thankfulness abound.

Splendor and majesty are before Him; strength and joy are in His dwelling place. 1 Chronicles 6:27