Today...... Joy

  Life has been crazy.  It's getting crazier still.  Lately I've been feeling somewhat out of control.  And when I feel out of control, I'm not very happy.  My words are not very kind.  My countenance is much colder.  Stress just does not sit well with me.

This morning I woke up with fresh resolve.  Today,  I will choose joy.  I can't control many, many things in this life.  But I can choose joy.  There is nothing in this life that can steal the joy that Christ gives me. 

So I woke up ready to choose to smile, to speak gently, to act kindly as I went through my days.

So I started the day.  I slept in accidentally.  As I was opening my drawer, I knocked off my glasses.  As I picked up my glasses, I knocked off my earrings.   I came into the dining room to write a list for the day.  I couldn't find a pencil.  I found a new one that had never been sharpened.  Started sharpening.  Was met with a formidable foe.

Deep down in the crevices of the sharpener dwelt a long piece of pencil that was jammed in so that nothing else could be sharpened.  All it really needed was a good shake.  But it is bolted to our bookcase.  I poked and prodded but to no avail.  I knew I needed something smaller so I went in search of a large safety pin.   The only one I found had a mini safety pin jammed in the top so that it couldn't open.  It was somewhere between trying to wrench out that mini and almost poking my poor finger to death that I realized my joy slowly slipping away.  I started laughing, thinking of how a mini safety pin, a pencil sharpener and a broken lead had almost clouded the incredible joy that fills my heart.

I prevailed.

Today we are doing things a little differently.  Today I made a list of our ten top priorities for the day.  Then I changed it to the top nine.  Ranked most important to least important. 

Today we are starting with #1.  When that is finished we will go on to #2.  If we only get to number 2 or 3 or 4, at least we will have accomplished the four most important things for us to accomplish today.  And we will do it with joy.  There is nothing I have to do today, or any day really that is worth sacrificing a joyful heart.  So today, that's what I choose!