Category Archives: Positivity

Discovering Your Joy Within!

12 Tuesday Dec 2017

Posted by in Attitude, Blessings, Celebration, Choices, Christmas, Contentment, Empathy, Encouragement, Giving, Goodness, Hope, Inspiration, Jesus' Birth, Joy, Love, Peace, Positivity, Seasons, Strength

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I mostly wrote this five years ago this very day, but it seems to ring even more true for the world we are living in this day! The greatest challenge and endeavor in life is to learn the vital lesson of discovering your joy within! With that comes the importance of holding onto that joy peacefully and consistently, no matter the circumstances you are currently experiencing, all while reflecting that contentment as a light back into the world. None of us is immune to hardships, traumas, and problems in life or the catastrophic events beyond our control, but we have shared enough similar woes and life experiences to know that our inner joy is truly not a reflection of what has or will happen to us as much as it is a reflection of our choice as to how and what we feel, think, and believe about these matters! We choose how to summarily view our lives based on how we feel about what has happened to us. If we always cede our joy to feelings of despair, worry, anxiety, sadness, constantly mourning what we’ve lost over time, we erode the sense of joy we are meant to experience just by living! It’s as if we forget that our lives were filled with both happy and sad, ups and downs, laughter and tears. Anchoring our joy within ensures us that we won’t look back upon our lives in misery and despair!

We’re so well-equipped to love, to empathize, to be the face of compassionate caring for others once we have assured all of that for and within ourselves, by recognizing our own ability to keep our peace, joy, and contentment alive within our own soul and spirit! It’s so easy to harden from within with each trauma and every downturn. Soon enough, we have lost our ability to enjoy our own life or to help others enjoy theirs! By instilling in ourselves an indefatigable and rebounding joy within, we make ourselves almost immune to that habit of dwelling in perpetual despair! We may for a time mourn, ache, or hurt, but it need not take our life’s joy for all time! Perhaps we need only shift our focus more to the bright moments, the great times, and the things which we consider blessings, rather than focusing more often on what has grieved us or made us sad. And in just a time, that becomes the new habit!  

Find and hold onto your joy from within by habitually deciding to do just that! And then be a purposeful light for others, assuring them as to what joy, peace, and contentment can be for many who possibly need your leadership in that regard! It takes faith to live as a light, but the Lord sets a great example for us as to why we should! Shine your light for all the world to see, especially during this season of Christmas! You never know who might be inspired and led by your example in turn. There is enough darkness and despair in this world, enough sadness and suffering, reflect for others the way which leads them to their joy and light! And have a joyous season celebrating Christmas!   

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Baby Steps or Giant Leaps . .

07 Friday Jul 2017

Posted by in Attitude, Commitment, goals, Life, Patience, Persistence, Positivity, Success

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Often times, the person we’re hardest on in this life is ourselves! We set high goals or we have lofty expectations, which can lead us to feel disappointed when we come in with lesser achievements and accomplishments. Perhaps we’re in the process of reaching for more, of going for grander distances, pursuits, and for more overall. We might have wanted to hit some higher mark or reach some bigger result, but we mustn’t forget what baby steps or giant leaps we did take in pursuit of those goals! 

Yesterday, I was wanting to swim a significant distance. I planned on doing a distance swim which would have kept me moving towards an end goal I have for this season’s accomplishments. Last Summer, I had worked up to slightly over two miles of non-stop lap swimming in my pool by the end of the swimming season. I was thrilled to have reached that significant measured distance without stopping! So, this Summer, when the swimming season began back in May, I set out to beat my distance of last year. As of July 4th, just a few days ago, I reached the two-mile mark for non-stop lap swimming in my backyard pool! Pleased as punch with hitting that measurement, I will now endeavor to exceed that goal in my swimming for the remainder of the Summer. In pursuit of that goal though, yesterday’s swim was not as rewarding! I had to stop at 60 lengths of non-stop swimming, as I just ran out of steam before even hitting half a mile! I surely hadn’t fueled my body with proper nutrition for a longer swim. 

With such a brief swim in comparison to my two-mile swim just days ago, I felt disappointed and discouraged afterward. How was it that I could only do so few lengths of the pool just two days later? Well, in hindsight, I realize I am being really hard on myself for disparaging the swim I did yesterday. After all, those lengths I did swim without stopping still are significant! Yes, I wanted to do more, but I just couldn’t. However, I did swim anyway, which was better than not swimming at all! And I pushed myself during those 60 lengths of the pool, so I did give myself a workout in the process, although an abbreviated one compared to the longer swim I had planned on doing! Each swim does contribute to my overall conditioning and my training goals, after all. I just need to accept each day’s efforts as being worthwhile! Going easier on myself is key.  

It’s so easy to be hard on ourselves for not doing more or for not reaching interim goals we’ve set for ourselves. We forget to look at those interim steps we’re taking as being meaningful to the overall end goal. Every single step, no matter the size, is still getting us closer to something bigger. Every single time we participate in our pursuits, we’re developing literal or figurative muscles, which do help us perform more the next time! In my example, I am developing those literal swimming muscles and building my endurance, even if the distances I want to do aren’t always exceeding the last swim I actually did. And, each swim I take keeps me fit and ready for more, as my muscles remember the efforts both greater and lesser. 

We must remember to look at all the steps we’re taking as being successful, in that we’re moving consistently towards a goal ahead, even if some steps are baby-size and others are giant leaps! Each is a contribution towards reaching a goal we deem important for our lives overall! Remember to assess your progress in a way which is more accepting of the baby steps as well as the giant leaps. In doing that, you will be better able to contain your disappointment, to manage your progress, and to preserve your sense of encouragement along the way! Goals are always something we’re working towards, and in my case, even though I hit the goal of swimming non-stop consistently for two miles, I will want to see how much further I can swim non-stop anyway! My goal is inevitably a sliding one, and so my progress should be measured in turn – via sliding steps and flexible efforts! As long as I don’t give up because I don’t always hit my mark, I’m still moving forward towards reaching some end! Baby steps or giant leaps, I’m still making progress!    

The Benefits Far Outweigh Anything Negative!

03 Monday Jul 2017

Posted by in Attitude, Beauty, Choices, Gardening, God, Lessons, Life, Nature, Outdoors, Peace, Positivity, Seasons

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I’m enjoying all the nature sightings of recent weeks and months, the benefits of these creature sightings far outweigh anything negative! There is nothing like experiencing wild animals among us when we’re in our own yards or visiting other locations! And although I have had a few inopportune moments with critters and bugs recently too, I focus on the positive impact the sightings of less pesky creatures have upon my life rather than the imperfections we can often face when human beings meet the wild! Just last month, I had a scare when I found a live scorpion in the upstairs guest room in which I was staying at my sister’s house! It was not pleasant whacking it with a shoe and praying there were no others for the few days I was visiting! But, it was a one-time sighting in a slew of visits, so I let it go and enjoyed my visit. And on that particular visit, I went whale watching on a trip in which I experienced seeing humpback and minke whales, as well as seeing a super pod of common dolphins! That and several other nature-oriented experiences made the scorpion sighting less memorable for sure!

Just yesterday, I saw a family with sixteen baby quail in my front yard! It was delightful to watch the brood scurry and scamper beside their parents. Quail are common visitors to my yard, but their families are not often that numerous! They’re so tiny when newborn, yet so proficient in their quail duties! This sighting came just hours after I had to remove the rather stinky rotting carcass of some poor dead creature laying in the backyard. Perhaps it had fallen prey to some other animal’s attack. Again, the benefit of the large quail family sighting far outweighed the nastiness of removing the stinky corpse! I’ve also recently had numerous rabbit sightings, with plentiful baby bunnies being born in the last few months. The sightings of the tinier babies more than make up for the nibbling older rabbits which insist upon gnawing my plants to stubs or to dust! Babies in my yard are always welcome, even when I realize how voracious they’ll be as adults one day soon!  

With Summer in the desert, we get an influx of several types of bugs which aren’t prevalent the rest of the year. Those include pesky mosquitoes which seem to thrive in the heat, big 2 – 3″ paloverde beetles and cicadas which buzz incessantly from their perches in trees throughout the landscape. The presence of these bugs is a nuisance often, as they creep around in places which are unexpected and the mosquitoes bite all the uncovered flesh which is more prevalent with the heat of Summer! I’ve even been bitten by mosquitoes while swimming in the pool! Short of swimming underwater only, I’m not sure I know how to evade those pests entirely! And everywhere I look in the yard, ants are busy doing whatever it is ants do! They’re usually not an issue, until I stop in their pathway in my sandals, often getting bitten for my error in judgment.

 

It’s always the case in Summer that I wish for a bit of relief when it comes to nature’s more pesky creatures. Bugs and creepy crawlers, snakes and lizards are not my favorite things. But this morning I was overjoyed to return a tiny gecko to the outdoors after finding it indoors on the carpeting by my front door! Those little things are cute, but they’re not meant to live indoors! I’ve already seen enough cuteness watching the common species of birds, the lovebirds which have naturalized, the lizards, squirrels and the bunnies running around while I watered this morning! Anything which seems negative at first with the creatures around me is always balanced out by something wondrous and fascinating to observe! Nature is a diverse, fantastical showcase of God’s miraculous handiwork and design! It’s both uplifting and at times, overwhelming and/or scary! It is just a part of living in this magical world which God has created!

Unwelcome Wind, Refreshing Rain . .

03 Monday Apr 2017

Posted by in Attitude, Blessings, Change, Choices, Joy, Lessons, Positivity

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Just about the time I was going to complain about the winds which had picked up this evening, I noticed the fresh scent of rain in the air wafting in through the open window. I went outside to check, to my own disbelief, it was in fact, raining lightly upon me and all the world around me! Those winds were worthwhile as they surely brought with them those few moments of bliss in the form of a stormy weather cell! And that’s a lesson for life. Often what we endure brings us a reward, a lesson, or some result which is beneficial! Those winds enabled us to have the fresh, clean scent of rain falling. And even though the rain only lasted for a short while, it was delightful!  

In studying life, don’t we often find that what we endure produces some beneficial lesson or experience from which we can gain something positive? Even in the worst case scenario of death, loss, illness or some other tragedy, there are positives hidden amongst the seeming perils, hardships, stones and thorns. We just have to look for the hidden treasure of a benefit to reshape what we perceive as negative into something positive instead! And we can utilize this trick for small difficulties and significant problems equally.

I had started out by being annoyed by the wind picking up, as I had just finished creating two big piles of plant trimmings near the sidewalk out front. We have scheduled uncontained trash pickups every quarter, which enables us to put out plant trimmings as well as a lot of other items which won’t fit in our garbage cans. It’s a benefit our city offers, scheduled by the area of the city in which we live. In my area, we’re preparing for our pickup next week. So I was able to do a lot of Spring yard clean up in anticipation of this particular quarter’s uncontained trash pickup. The piles I made contain mostly pruned branches and assorted cuttings from plants in my yard. There are two piles of limbs, branches, as well as several trash bags filled with leaves. Unfortunately, the wind means my piles might blow around or shift from their present location! So I became a bit agitated at the thought of the mess I might have until I smelled the rain through the breeze that is!  

And now as I’m reflecting upon the change the winds brought, I can even still hear the thunder clapping outside a few hours later! It’s a pleasant surprise from what began first as an annoyance. The wind wasn’t entirely welcome, but along with it, was this storm cell offering up scents, sounds, and a refreshing change! I’ve learned to look for the benefit in things, in even the worst case situations in life. There is always something positive and beneficial to be found in everything, even in tragedy or great sadness or in our problems! It might require significant, heartfelt searching to find that benefit or to see the positive in something seemingly or overwhelmingly negative, but to do so ensures that we’ll have more joy and/or contentment in life! Instead of making ourselves miserable, especially over things we cannot change, we create more joy or at least don’t destroy our existing joy!

The wind was threatening after so much work creating those piles, after all, I worked hard to rake up leaves, bag them, cut branches off trees, then move it and stack it all at that spot in my yard near the street. But without the wind, I wouldn’t have had the rain tonight! So I welcomed the wind because it brought the rain and stormy weather. Often, without the negativity or the pain in life, we wouldn’t know how to truly value the blessings we have! Learning how to see life through rosier lenses is a gift for sure! It just takes looking past what at first seems to be less than rosy, positive or promising! Shift your focus and you’ll see everything differently, from a new perspective.   

Overcoming, Not Status Quo and Easy Breezy . .

20 Saturday Aug 2016

Posted by in Attitude, Choices, Confidence, Courage, Discipline, Faith, God, Growing, Lessons, Life, Maturity, Opportunity, Positivity, Self-Esteem, Self-Respect, Strength, Success

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We aren’t here to live a life free of problems, but rather to motivate, to inspire and to elevate ourselves and others around us through them. We’re meant to rise to the occasion, to learn, to grow and to mature within to be able to take on more problems as well as to develop our abilities to handle greater challenges ahead. How do we do that if we and those we nurture are encouraged to hide from our problems, or worse, kept purposefully from them?? Problems seem to be now viewed as problematic, the very ways in which we challenge our status quo in life now have taken on such a stigma, we often want to escape instead!download

 

 

Facing our problems is the only way we know how strong and tough we can be as the “overcomers” we are meant to be! Hiding, denying, ignoring, backing away, settling for less, or creating safe spaces only cripples us within. We must accept challenges as part of the continuous growing cycle we are always in, we must experience lessons and tests as the ongoing way in which we mature and develop ourselves in life’s perpetual classroom. If we were to live life sans problems, challenges or tests, we would never learn about our own inner strength, our fortitude or most of our abilities. Status quo and easy-breezy doesn’t really teach us about ourselves, nor does it develop within us the appreciation, acknowledgement or awareness of our metal, our own persevering spirit or our maturity as time passes. Overcoming gives us that. When we overcome and mature through things, we develop more self-confidence, self-esteem and self-worth. Of course, all of that is God’s gift to us, through His gift of love within us to begin with. We are meant to be overcomers because God made us to so. In this world, we face daily challenges and must learn to rise to those challenges to become more. There are infinite opportunities each new day for us to become something more and someone greater than who we are today!   Positive-quotes-about-problems-solution-quotes

 

Even if we ourselves created some of the taxing problems we are now enduring through accidental or purposeful choices, we must accept the responsibility we now face for extricating ourselves from the constraints those problems represent. Problems always offer us a chance to be overcomers! And that is always a more inspiring and uplifting response rather than denial or flight. God is with us as we endeavour and pursue the ways to move forward, through and beyond our current issues and problems. But we will not learn how to make our way if we choose to always make our way safer, easier, and problem-free. Accepting problems as the necessary learning experiences they represent is always the best way to keep our peace in this world. Doing otherwise makes our journey more miserable and our role as problem-solver less rewarding.  

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Strength in Weakness . .

16 Saturday Jul 2016

Posted by in Choices, Contentment, Faith, God, Inspiration, Lessons, Peace, Positivity, Strength

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Sometimes our prayers for healing or removing the burden which vexes us isn’t answered the way we would like because often the Lord uses what we endure and the burdens we carry to teach us more about ourselves and surely about Him than we would know without having that burden or enduring our woes. It’s not His will to make us miserable, but rather it is, in my opinion, His desire to have us draw closer to Him, to watch us overcome because of His help, and to rise higher than an affliction or a vexing situation.

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I’ve witnessed this in my own mother’s life for years. She has had to endure crippling arthritis in her hands especially, but also in most of her joints and throughout her body. But when I say crippling, I mean that in our estimation. Even though her hands, wrists and other joints are visibly altered, she hasn’t let it cripple her, nor has she let the bumps, inflamed joints, or alignment imperfections change a thing about her life! She worked as a nurse until she was 79, which was last year. She has been active, even until the present time. She has never let the pain I’m sure she has endured, given the mangled state of her fingers especially, stop her, nor has she languished in it with self-pity. I’m not saying this to declare her a saint, but rather to share her example in confirming this message. She has learned to not only live with her impairments and her ailment, but she has learned to live with it all with a good attitude and a peaceful acceptance! God didn’t heal her perhaps because He was able to show others through her that often what we mere humans believe about our limits is just false! And by not healing her, He was able to convince my mom that her life was still valuable and worthy of her peace of mind, her joy of spirit, her faith in Him and her contentment through it all. There are many people with much worse arthritis, who are much more crippled physically by it and other diseases, and those who have other really bad disorders or ailments through which to contend. This is by no means meant to disregard or disparage their pain, their situations, or the very real difficulties and challenges presented by their afflictions. I relate this as a means of suggesting that a lot of what we deem insurmountable is truly a source of strength, courage and an overcomer’s tenacity if we turn our perspective. 

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Paul, formerly Saul, who wrote several books of the New Testament, was also given such a measure – for which he too accepted the absence of healing as a means of showing God’s great glory and strength! From 2 Corinthians 12: 7 So to keep me from becoming conceited because of the surpassing greatness of the revelations, a thorn was given me in the flesh, a messenger of Satan to harass me, to keep me from becoming conceited. 8 Three times I pleaded with the Lord about this, that it should leave me. 9 But he said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” Therefore I will boast all the more gladly of my weaknesses so that the power of Christ may rest upon me. 10 For the sake of Christ, then, I am content with weaknesses, insults, hardships, persecutions, and calamities. For when I am weak, then I am strong.  Take it from Paul, perhaps what you’ve been all-too-accepting as a weakness is really a source of great strength if you just choose to make it such!

A More Expansive Sense of Gratitude . .

02 Thursday Jun 2016

Posted by in Blessings, Celebration, Choices, Contentment, Faith, God, Gratitude, Hope, Positivity

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Each day, I try to think of ways and things in which I am so grateful, blessings I acknowledge usually at the start or end of my day. But the other day, I was so overwhelmed within with the sensation of how rich my life has been overall! It was a definitive sense unlike any I  remember having had before! It seemed as though the Spirit within me was lifting me to a place of gratitude the likes of which I hadn’t known prior! It was a flood of sensation, with a highlight reel of my life passing through my mind simultaneously with the reflections I was having. In my heart and mind, I could take and comprise all that I had once enumerated singularly into something greater, bigger and more expansive. I could take my gratitude and place it upon my life in its entirety. I believe God was reminding me through the Spirit’s leading to stand strong in hope, faith and to remain contented, as He had provided so much for me throughout my life. My life in total reflects more than I often even remembered and my life’s value is more esteemable than those daily lists might reflect! Instead of having my daily list of things in which to be grateful to use as a means of silencing the fears, doubts, worries and consuming, disturbing emotions which stir within me during these unsettling days here on planet Earth, God was giving me (through the Spirit within me) a fuller, bigger and more expansive sense of gratitude to stand firm and strong anew each day! b2a67dd8106445a84c8262b5fa886f6d

 

I’ve always been loved, cared for, fed, clothed, housed, educated, and have had many opportunities to travel, explore and adventure in this life. I was born in the USA, which in itself, is a blessing for our commitment to human rights and freedom, as well as the richness of our nation. I’ve had so much joy and overcome so many things which surely could have been much worse, but for the grace of God. I have great parents (one surviving), siblings and grandparents (though all have passed). My family was always nurturing and full of love. I have lifelong friends who are like family. I have eyes, ears and a heart which sees the beauty of life around me each new day. I was given the gift of not shying from hard, physical work, which had taught me a lot about myself and my own abilities. And I have a desire to learn in spite of any fears, doubts, and worries which might stop me from trying. I persevere. And none of this is my doing! It has all been because of God’s grace, mercy and for His purposes. My role as a created being is to live according to His plans and purposes, a role I have learned to accept and in which I am content.  26e6c08e7627e39158a554ffd02bfa87

 

If you ask God to reveal His wonder in you, in others, in the world, He will! If you wonder about your own life, pray for Him to fill you with all the reminders and recollections of how He has cared for you and loved you through others and throughout your life! I’m so grateful for the richness of my life and all my blessings through His grace! Have I had it all? No. Do I have everything I would have wanted? No. But I have so much, have had so much, and am so full of gratitude, I don’t have a need to count or enumerate those things I might be missing! Let me always remain in this state, through the grace of the Lord, by the Spirit within me.  Signature02

Revised Expectations . .

27 Wednesday Apr 2016

Posted by in Attitude, Blessings, Choices, Contentment, Positivity

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Often when we’re expecting something to be one way, we’re surprised to discover it come to pass in another way! Last Thursday, we went out on a whale-watching boat from Oxnard in hopes of spotting whales with their calves in their migratory progression to the cooler waters to the North. We were out on seas made choppier by winds which were increasing in intensity for about two or so hours, leaving unsuccessfully without seeing a thing! The captain determined that it would not be wise to venture closer to the Channel Islands, as the waves out in deeper water were even worse! We didn’t even see a dolphin and just a day before they had estimated thousands of them were seen in the area. The abbreviated trip was a bit disappointing to us all, but the ship’s captain gave each of us a full-fare voucher for another boat ride, to use whenever we are able.  DSC01536

One hour later, as we sat beach-side at our table in Malibu, we spotted whales within just feet of us, traveling with their calves where the waves broke on the beach. From the distance of our table, we could see about ten passing in procession, spouting, and breaching as they traveled. Everyone in the restaurant left their tables to watch the procession with great interest through the large windows. Now we surely felt rewarded for the day’s efforts to find such majestic creatures as the Humpback whales casually passing by while we were eating our delicious lunch with such breathtaking views!   gratitude-quotes-1024x819 

So in spite of the less than desirable results of our adventures out to sea, we rolled with the results and were rewarded in spades for it! Even when we were out there not spotting whales or dolphins, while several of our fellow passengers got seasick in the choppy seas, we maintained our contentment just for having had such a great experience. Things don’t always go as we plan in life, but if we keep our attitude of gratitude through our revised expectations, we surely can count our blessings more easily than when we don’t!

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Making Contact . .

19 Saturday Mar 2016

Posted by in Attitude, Choices, Friendliness, Kindness, Positivity

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When I go hiking, I am sociable; saying hello or good morning, and smiling at others on the trail. I don’t usually know the people I greet, sometimes they’re familiar as I’ve seen them hiking before, but they’re strangers for the most part. They’re usually just a randomly amassed group of people of all ages, gender, faith, color and language who chose to do the same thing at the same time. I’m not the only sociable hiker, there are others as well, and probably 90% of those hiking respond to others in kind! We greet one another with smiles, hello’s and good mornings!  attitude-motivational-quotes

So I wonder, are we all as friendly once we have left the trails, throughout the rest of our day? What if we stopped in our busy endeavors long enough to make eye contact and to smile? And suppose we took note of the random people passing by rather than ignoring them because we surely had other things on our mind? It’s truly just by habit, this desire to connect or not! I know I don’t always smile and greet others, I get busy and self-involved I suppose. But if I find that microcosm of the trail so comfortable, why aren’t I also just as friendly the rest of my day?011

I’m reminded by my daily hikes to be more friendly elsewhere; that often it’s not important that we humans have a truly noticeable or obvious reason for connecting in our experiences. Just in crossing paths throughout our day, we have more than good reason to be friendly with those with whom we come in contact! And I can surmise from my experiences on the hiking trails, that probably 90% of people with whom I interact will respond to my friendliness in other situations and places just as they do while hiking! It surely can’t hurt this world to be purposefully and genuinely friendly! Smile, welcome someone with a hello or a good day . . today!

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My Joy Is Not Conditional . .

06 Monday Jul 2015

Posted by in Attitude, Choices, Contentment, Faith, Joy, Positivity

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It feels great to consider the possibilities of a new day joyful, even though there are many unexpected moments and uncertainties ahead. My joy is not conditional. It won’t come or go, untethered, as if adrift in some wind’s changeable currents. Joy is a state of being, a decision of one’s soul and spirit. It is not really changeable, unless the soul or spirit renounces it in favor of unease, negativity, misery and inner unrest. bible-quote

Joy comes from living contentedly, at peace and in faithful rest by purposeful choice in God and His will. Joy isn’t the same as momentary happiness, it goes so much deeper than that! Real joy dwells within the emotions and temperament of a determined and disciplined soul; and thus is tied to the self-control of emotions and the attitudes consistent within. No outer influence can take your joy, unless and until you cede your joy from within as a result. Things happen which take our happiness for a time and even bring us great sadness; but joy is a rebounding state within, whereby the soul refuses to don the gown of misery, negativity, faithlessness or hardness forever as a result.  bible-verses-4

Joy is the soul’s chosen acceptance of life’s bounty, beauty and blessings, in spite of moments of unhappiness and periods of great sadness! Being joyful is to keep one’s heart focused on the very blessings of life and the promises of God with faith, hope and a sense of calm; concentrating on what is positive and uplifting rather than to hold onto what saddens, breaks or strips from us our hope. Joy belongs to the over-comer; who with faithful expectancy and hope, sees each new day as a priceless gift regardless what is looming, what actually happens or what may yet come! Consider this new day joyful, for that is your choice!  Signature02