The Secret to Living a Joyful Life Despite Your Circumstances
As I sit watching my daughter play in our backyard, sipping the most delightful cup of coffee in a shady little spot with just the perfect amount of filtered sunlight hitting my face, I can’t help but feel like life is pretty good. Actually more than good, it feels pretty perfect. Right now the birds are chirping because they think it’s spring. The frigid temperatures have been traded out for a perfect 78° with just enough coolness in the morning air to make it feel like how I imagine heaven would be like. The cool, wet dew is still sprinkled on the grass contrasting the warmth I feel hitting my back. My daughter is so happy. Giggling and running around, prancing from toy to toy. My gratefulness is oozing. If I could package up this moment, it would be my, “happy place” because everything about it feels right.
Related Post: Loving the Lack of Happy
The funny thing is yesterday morning I sat out here also. Same chair, same coffee. Except it was missing that perfect sprinkle of filtered light and it was about 10° colder and overcast. My coffee tasted bitter (although it was made the exact same way). My daughter was cranky. To be honest, my thoughts were very different. I was exacerbated by motherhood. I could see all the flaws in my house and things that needed to be done in my life — overwhelmed with the depravity of the world after reading a news story that broke my heart.
Feelings are so subjective.
How is it that today I can sit here and relish in life... grateful to the core, yet yesterday felt like the weight of life was crushing. All because of a few conditional changes?But amongst the contrasting feelings, I had within a 24 hour period; it was such a beautiful reminder to me to reevaluate what I’m letting steer my ship. God must be. He is the only person who was ever meant to have reigns to that. I see a movement happening where happiness is the priority, and suddenly I saw it so clearly in my own life.
Our emotions are so deceitful and they will control us if we let them.
We see so many areas in the Bible where we are warned that our emotions can be and how they are not meant to be trusted. We must take them every day to the feet of Jesus and surrender them only to be seen under the lens of Him and His word.The Bible warns us;
“The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately sick; who can understand it?: - Jeremiah 17:9
But amongst this revelation, although tempted to be disheartened by the flakiness of my flesh I felt so comforted to know that I don’t have to trust my wayward emotions. That I have a God who so Beautifully gave me directions on how to navigate my life outside of myself. Outside of my messy feelings and emotions that are subject to change by the weather or conditions in my life.
What are we going to do in the figurative overcast days of our lives?Are we going to let our emotions guide to ship that only God was created to captain?
We are allowed to have bad days, and it’s OK to recognize that some days are better than others but on all days... friends, LET'S SEEK JESUS. Let’s make our true happiness come from the real source. Let's get in a posture of gratefulness not based on conditional elements but because His word is so deep in our veins that on the rainy days we aren’t thrown off course. We don’t lose hope.Today, I will sit here on this perfect day and soak up the wonderfulness of all that it is. But, if tomorrow...
- It rains
- My coffee is bitter
- The sunlight doesn’t peer from behind the clouds and caresses my skin like it did today
- My kids are having a bad day
- Life circumstances make my morning not so appealing