April 19, 2013;

I learned something very important today, a very simple truth I should have known much earlier in my life but somehow it escaped me.  The Bible even tells us the importance of this simple truth repeatedly, but still somehow it's truth seemed to elude me and the lack of it created a life that was substandard in many areas.  The truth is happiness or joy is a choice and it's something we get to create in our own lives.  And it's something that God wants us to have everyday, all day long, consistently.  One scripture says "The joy of the Lord is my strength, the Lord is the strength of my life".  Another one says "The Lord came that I might have life and that more abundantly".  And there is another one I've always used it's kind of my way of leaving those things behind and moving forward, "the best revenge is a good life". 

Happiness is definitely a choice and noone can make you happy but you and......if anyone else is looking for that right person, or a fuller social life, happiness draws others to you, not to mention the health benefits, psychological benefits and emotional benefits. 

Dr. Suess wrote the book "Oh the places you will go" it talks about all the wonderful and unusual places that you will go as you adventure through life. Robert Louis Stevenson wrote "The world is so full of a number of things I'm sure we should all be as happy as kings!"

The Lord has implanted in every single person giftings, desires, ambitions, dreams, visions, but he speaks in such a quiet way in our spirits that we very seldom listen.  God put those there, the Creator of the universe, I think that warrants attention.  He wants you happy, he wants you to experience a full abundant life.  And I'm gonna tell you regardless of what you can come up with as adventurous or abundant or fulfilling times it by 1000000 and then you might times it again because you cannot fathom how adventurous God is. 

I realized that I had spent my life waiting, waiting to be happy, waiting to do the things I want to do, waiting to finish my work, my chores, my home repairs, raising my kids, seeing them through their mistakes.  I found myself so caught up in the "what I have to do today" that I never paid attention to the good things I could create or the places I could go or any of the things I could do.  I had a friend who tried to tell me that I needed to "focus" focus, that was all I ever did was focus, concentrate, do what was required of me.  Never did I do fun things or play.  I actually sat down last night and took inventory of how I spend my time and why I spend it that way.  I wait to experience all of the good things until everything else is done.  I don't know if anyone else was raised with the motto chores first, then fun.  Well as an adult chores never seem to stop and all work and no play makes for a very ineffective dull me.  And I have grown pretty dull lately.

Sooo whats the answer, well I believe it is to be anxious for nothing, trust God with the details, have faith and let go of the reins and laugh a little.  Play more, laugh more, smile and enjoy everyone and relax God's got you. 

And I have to tell you, happiness is very attractive ladies, trust me, it ranks right up there with being a christian woman and being intelligent, so be happy, genuinely happy and be adventurous.  Enjoy yourself, the world God created for you to enjoy, your family, your friends, and all the new people God has waiting to meet you. 

You will grow to really like you.