Choosing Joy

The other morning on the way to work, I was singing "Good Morning" with Mandisa (You cannot sing that song and not smile your face off).  And it hit me smack where my mama lives.   

I am joyful.

I am full of joy.

I am so incredibly full of joy.

That's huge for me.  Joy isn't an emotion that comes easily for me.  Always a worry wart, nervous nelly, and shopper on the misery aisle, Joy isn't something that I completely recognize.

But I recognized it, and of course, called Lacey.   "Lacey, do you feel it... are you feeling it?".... to her hesitant reply...."What am I feeling, mom?"  and I said  "JOY, aren't you HAPPY?" and she stopped for a minute and replied, "Yep, I really am."

It would be pretty easy to get down.  If I viewed a lot of the things going down around me, I could get burdened, backlogged and bewildered.  (That's a lot of b's)

But, I choose to see the glass half full.

Or.....full.

When you google "Joyful pictures" you find a bunch of people jumping.  So, apparently me and the girls were joyful before we even knew it.  

I think when you are living inside God's pocket, and listening to His will for your life, you can't help but have extreme joy.

Even in the struggles of the world.

Bubba scared 37 years off my life last night.  His blood pressure went off the charts and he ended up with Lacey in the ER, while Grammie, Hallie and I took the 55 minute drive to Mercy and cut it down to about 40.  They still don't know what caused him to spike off the chart and have the disorientation that comes from having a BP so high, but he will have some tests ran and we'll see what is up.

Joy.  II'm going to use Rick Warren's example of RR tracks here, and put it in my own weird way. Everyday you have two railroad tracks  ONE of LIFE (which has pain, despair, happiness, worry, regret, sadness, love, hate, sorrow and busy)....BUT running parallel with that train track is a track of your choosing.  You can choose to handle all that LIFE throws at you with doubt and uncertainty and small amount of fear, or you can CHOOSE joy and trust and Faith.  It's totally up to you what you put on that second track.  

Joy is a choice.  Choose wisely.

God is good, all the time. 

I've shared this video before, but it so rings true for this blog.  I want to live like that.  I want to be joyful and have God shine through me.  I choose Joy.