Joy: The passion or emotion excited by the acquisition or expectation of good; that excitement of pleasurable feelings which is caused by success, good fortune, the gratification of desire or some good possessed, or by a rational prospect of possessing what we love or desire; gladness; exultation; exhilaration of spirits.
A few years ago I was in a place of deep depression. I didn't want to do anything ~ and most people around me didn't even know how deep and dark that depression was. I was able to put on a good face, present myself to others in a somewhat 'normal' demeanor, and go about my day. Inside I was dying. I found that even my journal entries had become dark and a place of pouring out frustrations and sadness, until I eventually quit writing in them at all. I heard a sermon one Sunday about joy. Not happiness - but joy. A deeper feeling of good and the expectation of good. I went home and started a new journal that I vowed to myself would contain only joy and gratitude. I promised myself that I would write only those things in that specific journal. I love a new journal! The crisp empty pages ready to be filled with written words, snippets of quotes and comments that I gather......but this 'joy journal' was a challenge at a time when I felt anything but joyful.
Those first days I wrote one liners - things like "I'm thankful for air conditioning in our home on a 95 degree day" or "I'm grateful for food in our cabinets and freezer". I made myself write something different every day, whether I wanted to or not. After a few days I had to search for things that I hadn't already mentioned, but I kept on. What this caused me to do was start to look beyond myself. I began to take notice of people around me and just from what I could see I began to realize that I had so much more to be thankful for. I started to read my Bible again and remind myself that God never promised an easy road. Most of the accounts in Scripture are about hardship and how God's people persevere through those hardships. My journal entries, slowly, became longer and filled with joy and thankfulness.
Lately I've been thinking about hardship again. As I'm climbing slowly back to health after my self imposed setback I am more aware of how very much I have to be thankful for. I made decisions in my personal life (that one tiny pill that I decided to not take a few months ago) and how it has turned a very healthy person into one that is now monitoring things like blood pressure and other health conditions that in the past I didn't have to think about. I used to walk several miles for exercise, now I can barely manage 10 minutes without feeling the negative effects on my body. Thankfully I'm slowly getting better. It is not an instant fix, just like the negative effects of not taking thyroid weren't an instant negative impact, it took time for the 'scary storm' of a bad choice to reveal itself.
Some habits creep into our lives in subtle ways, taking hold bit by bit before they take deep root and then are harder to remove. Things can start out as something very positive but slowly morph into a destructive habit. "Oh, I'll just read this one book, it has explicit language and situations but the story line is SO good". Some of the most popular TV shows are graphic crime dramas (yes, I fall in this habit!) - the stories reflect our society, and I think that is why we are so drawn to them, at the same time we have become so desensitized that we think nothing of the blood and violence that crosses our screen. Our children and grandchildren see things that I really never knew existed when I was their age - I simply played outside or watched Lassie and Mr Ed, or reruns of I Love Lucy! But I also didn't have night terrors or fear as I went to bed each night. I didn't learn those things until I was a bit older and slowly learned about the dangers of the world and how to watch for them. It's a catch 22 for our children - we have created a world so dangerous and threatening that we have to teach them about what could happen, but we can still shelter them from the graphic portrayals through TV, videos and music. Yet we don't. Even when I have my granddaughters in my care and we play outside I hear in their play the words and scenarios that they are surrounded with from school, TV and music. It makes me sad.
Today I'm shifting focus, again, to good habits. It takes time to develop habits (good and bad). So today I challenge myself, and you, to think before you drink, eat, watch, read, listen to or participate in an activity. What habit are you falling into, or what behavior has become so ingrained in you that it is now acceptable even though destructive? Even seemingly good habits can turn into controlling and harmful ones.
I read this devotional thought this morning and it got me started on this thought process:
Your god may be your little Christian habit - the habit of prayer or Bible reading at certain times of your day. Watch how your Father will upset your schedule if you begin to worship your habit instead of what the habit symbolizes. We say "I can't do that right now; this is my time alone with God". No, this is your time alone with your habit. There is a quality that is still lacking in you. Identify your shortcoming and then look for opportunities to work into your life that missing quality. Oswald Chambers, My Utmost for His Highest.
What habit will you tackle today? The first step is acknowledging that it IS a habit!!
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