Choosing JOY!

I am choosing JOY! Choosing to pal around with my friend JOY. Choosing to let her into my life, into my thoughts, into my words, into my actions, into my heart. I want her to be reflected in the way I am perceived by others. So, why is it so hard to choose JOY?!?! Why do we desire to live a life filled with bitterness, rudeness, shortness, and frustration. As I walk out the door every morning I make a vow to choose JOY. To go out of my way to make the world a better place for someone...anyone....because after all we don't know the pain and heartache behind their eyes. We don't know the difference a little effort, a little flexibility on our part would make in their life. Yet, if we just wake up every morning with the attitude that we are going to choose JOY, then we will be bound to touch a life, a broken heart, a lost soul. So, why is it so hard? It is so hard, because you must remind yourself three thousand times to choose JOY. The first bitter person you run into, the first disgruntled person you meet....you have to rise above, you have to remember that you chose JOY.

Right now at school, we have devoted our year to integrating the Fruit of the Spirit into our classrooms and our culture. Love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self control. 9 simple concepts. 9 was to bring JOY into your life. 9 fruit to share with others. 9 was to make your day a whole lot brighter. And yet, for each fruit you will encounter a ton of obstacles...a ton of irritable people who find you to be annoying. It is at that moment that I have decided to call upon my Savior, to ask him to give me the strength to overcome those obstacles; to avoid the bitterness, grumpiness, anger, frustration, and ugliness....because I am going to choose JOY. And I am going to do it first and foremost because my God calls me to....because I want to be like Jesus, because I want to honor my daughter Leah Faith Davis in my every day life. Because I want to be a joy-filled person. Because I want to be like that one person who reached out to me...gave me a little flexibility when my heart was broken...my joy was lost...my anguish to big to bear. Because nobody likes to be around a grumpy, inflexible person. Because every Joy filled day is a great day!! Because my children deserve to be filled with JOY. Because IT IS NOT ABOUT YOU!!! So, pulled yourself out of it....grab a little Joy, walk out your door, and spread it around. The greatest thing about JOY is the more you share the more you get back in return! SOOOOOO...
HAVE A JOY-FILLED DAY!!