Joy and Brilliance are within reach for all of us. No matter who you are, what you’ve been through. You can reach out, grab it and bring it into your life. Sure we all have challenges we are faced with and we must overcome. However it’s our attitude towards those challenges that make the biggest difference in our journey.
We can either embrace them with a sense of adventure and willingness to go through it to see what is on the other side. OR we can choose despair, frustration, depression, anger and resentment about those challenges.
Before you jump to conclusions and say – “well, she doesn’t know what I’ve been through and if she had been through what I had she wouldn’t be saying that.” Know this – I have been through a heck of a lot in my 41 years of life. Among what I have experienced is deep depression, sorrow, failures, an assault, abusive relationship and yes – even date rape. All of which has shaped me into who I am, what I hold true in my heart and what I believe about myself. I don’t have regrets because of what each experience has taught me and the understanding I have gained from them. Through it all there was one constant…God was always by my side.
So today I choose joy.
Psalm 30Good News Translation (GNT)
A Prayer of Thanksgiving[a]
30 I praise you, Lord, because you have saved me
and kept my enemies from gloating over me.
2 I cried to you for help, O Lord my God,
and you healed me;
3 you kept me from the grave.
I was on my way to the depths below,[b]
but you restored my life.
4 Sing praise to the Lord,
all his faithful people!
Remember what the Holy One has done,
and give him thanks!
5 His anger lasts only a moment,
his goodness for a lifetime.
Tears may flow in the night,
but joy comes in the morning.
6 I felt secure and said to myself,
“I will never be defeated.”
7 You were good to me, Lord;
you protected me like a mountain fortress.
But then you hid yourself from me,
and I was afraid.
8 I called to you, Lord;
I begged for your help:
9 “What will you gain from my death?
What profit from my going to the grave?
Are dead people able to praise you?
Can they proclaim your unfailing goodness?
10 Hear me, Lord, and be merciful!
Help me, Lord!”
11 You have changed my sadness into a joyful dance;
you have taken away my sorrow
and surrounded me with joy.
12 So I will not be silent;
I will sing praise to you.
Lord, you are my God;
I will give you thanks forever.
***
So today – choose joy. Even if you are faced with a challenge. Find something in that challenge that you can grow from; learn from; or grow stronger.
Image credit: https://www.flickr.com/photos/denisedaysmith/6873792787
