Joy

I have been so blessed with the people that have come into my life. Truly. It's like an addiction- I can't get enough of them. This post is primarily geared towards an amazing woman I met at LIFEPRINT Church. Her name is Carol and is seriously one of the greatest, funniest, generous, happy, supportive people I know. She's one of those beautiful souls that you can never see mad or unhappy. Which I know probably isn't true, but that's the only way I see her. I wrote those exact words to her on facebook and she sent me this quote... (so of course I put it with a photo that I had taken a few days ago).....
I was struck by this because it is really an easy thing to say that we "try" to do- but really, it's not exactly the easiest thing to do in this life. Being joyful/happy is a choice. We are not necessarily given happiness- but we are given the opportunity to be happy- to carry joy along with us. We can't buy happiness. We can't earn happiness. We ARE however given the chance to wake up everyday with a new day and another opportunity to be happy- Praise God for that! He is our happiness. He is our joy.

I will be the first to admit that I am not the happiest person all the time. I am not always the most positive person either. I can even be NOT very nice (guilty- Amy, if you read this... I feel terrible). I have a lot of pain and open wounds that I'm trying to give away to Him. THAT also is not the easiest thing to do- when really, it can't be more simple. But as my faith in Jesus grows, I am finding that joy IS absolutely contagious. With these people that I'm surrounding myself with- I'm finding that missing piece to the puzzle. I need to forget about the pain and have my cup overflow with His grace and His love. These amazing people bring joy into my life because they believe in Jesus Christ. They all have their story- good, bad, happy, horrifying, sad, amazing- we all do. We aren't all going to be happy 100% of the time- but that's the awesome part about having a personal relationship with Christ. You give Him all of the negative and painful things that we are going through- and He takes it with no questions asked. How many people do you know that can (or want!) to do that? For me. For you. It's all washed clean and made new again.

If you are going through pain or trying to bandage an open wound upon your heart- give it to Him... I'm right there with you. Just forgetting about the past and looking forward to an everlasting life. What an awesome thing.

Have you passed on Joy to someone today?