Thieves of Joy

Despite reflecting on the recent victories in my life yesterday, I realized just a short time later that some things have been stealing my joy lately... it just hit me that I haven't been smiling, laughing, or cracking jokes as much lately. And that made me sad. I miss my joy, I want it back.

Health issues have been stealing my joy. Not feeling good for 3.5 weeks certainly took some of it away.

Heartbreak stole my joy. Heartbreak over my ex-husband and another relationship that wasn't meant to be.

Church closing... even though I have still seen my family from church plenty, I haven't been ministered to in the same way, and work had caused me to be out of church at all for a couple of weeks. Not being nestled in the right church community right now is stealing my joy.

And you know what? All of that sucks!!! I miss my joy! I want it back!

I spent a year being trapped in a miserable marriage, and that stole my joy... then I came home, and was overwhelmed with joy, with family, with blessings, and with miracles.

You can sure as heck bet that I am not letting my joy go without a fight anymore. But it wasn't until yesterday that I realized it's been missing these last few weeks. Some of those things that have been stealing my joy are things that aren't going to go away over night... like the heartbreak. And finding the right church is going to take some time. Even still though, I don't have to let the devil steal my joy.

They always say that love is a choice, and you're not always filled with feelings of love. When you don't feel especially filled with love for your spouse or your siblings or parents on a particular day (and we all know those days happen), we have to make a choice to act in love towards them anyway.

I'm realizing more and more in my life that joy is truly a choice, too. There are so many things in this world that will fight to take away our joy, first and foremost, Satan. Just like you have to choose to act loving some days, you have to choose to keep your joy. Choose to be joyful in spite of your circumstances. And sometimes it's going to be a fight.

But I'd rather fight for joy than just give in to the thief of joy.