Get your JOY on!

I recently challenged some people in an online community to join me in a week of finding JOY in their lives. I was finding that all people were talking about was how miserable or challenging their lives were. When you only dwell on the negatives naturally your troubles become insurmountable problems. You dread every task, chore, waking up in the morning and facing your day because you are feeding yourself with dread and woe. We, in North America, have so much to be thankful for and even our worst day is nothing compared to the trials and tribulations that millions of people live with just meeting their basic needs. We are a bunch of spoiled brats who are not content with what we have. We want the magic fix to our situation and we don't want to do the work because it requires effort. Where is our joy?

My challenge was:

I am challenging you to spend the next week with me getting your JOY on! Let's be joyful in spite of our circumstances and in the face of our challenges. We are children of the King of Kings yet we mope around moaning about our troubles. We get stuck drowning in our sorrows. We pout because it is not fair that bad things happen to good people. I know some of you are thinking "but you don't know what mountain I am facing, you can't imagine what it's like to live my life". I may not have walked your exact road but I know that every one of us have challenges that can seem insurmountable. What we have in common is that the battle has already been won for us. We need to walk in the victory that is ours and be filled with the JOY of the Lord. Are you with me??? Can you find something to be joyful about today, tomorrow and the days that follow? I think that the reward of this challenge will be felt in your homes and your relationships by letting JOY control you rather than hopelessness, frustration, bitterness or disappointment.

".....the 'JOY' of the LORD is your strength."
Nehemiah 8:10

"Though you have not seen HIM, you love HIM; and even though you do not see HIM now, you believe in HIM and are filled with an inexpressible and glorious 'JOY' "
1 Peter 1:8

Joy, love, are and appreciation are powerful motivators. They are all feelings that humans experience around the heart. Joy is a feeling of pleasure or delight that arises from the heart. Positive feelings are what make life worth living. ~Deborah Rozman


This is the true joy of life, the being used up for a purpose recognized by yourself as a mighty one; being a force of nature instead of a feverish, selfish little clot of ailments and grievances, complaining that the world will not devote itself to making you happy. I am of the opinion that my life belongs to the community, and as long as I live, it is my privilege to do for it what I can.
~ George Bernard Shaw