Joy.

My writing challenge today is JOY! We spend our lives chasing the idea of happiness only to find it just out of our reach. I feel like that is constantly what I am doing to some extent every single day. Chasing. Even the name of this blog is Chasing My Serenity. I read online that Choosing joy means consciously putting an effort to find joy in the simple things by making joy the default state of our minds. I haven't quite figured out how to do that yet. How do you change your default state of mind?

My devotional (Be Still and Know) says that "Happiness comes by chance; Joy is a choice. It is choosing to be thankful when we could be ungrateful. It's choosing to see the good when we could see the bad. It's constant prayer coupled with continual thanksgiving."

I am always looking for things to work out, to be better so to speak then I will be happy. I feel like I am supposed to be learning an important lesson. I also feel like I am completely missing the point of it. Somedays its hard to look past the mess of life and see the message. It gets hard to see the testimony thru the test at the time. Jacquelynn Marie (powerinlaafter.com )wrote a blog yesterday and it really made me stop and think. I have read it 4 times so far. It is called Chaotic with Purpose. The whole thing really resonated with me but the part that stood out was her talking about how God would take the very mess that we hate and the ugliness that we refused to forgive in ourselves and He can turn it into a blessing. If you haven't followed her yet, now is the time to do that. She is an incredible Ghost writer for Jesus.

There are so many things in my life that I want to be different. instead of being still and knowing that God has me, I try to fix them myself. I read a church sign many years ago that said "You can't ask God to guide your footsteps if you aren't willing to move your own feet." Over the years that has constantly been in my head. I have always tried to move my feet, but I am honestly not sure that it was because God was guiding them or because Donna couldn't BE STILL!.

Lord, Please help me to be still and know. To look for the good in every mess. To see your message. Help me to find the joy! To choose the Joy, to spread the Joy.

Sincerely Me, Chasing My Serenity.