Love and Joy

Those words are so simple to say but sometimes hard to have! This world uses the word "love" all the time, we do it too; we say I "love" hamburgers, I "love" that dress, I "love" that song, Honey I "love" you, etc. The list could go on and on. And some days we have joy and somedays it is just the name of the girl down the street! lol! A preacher I just heard recently said that up until a few years ago he didn't know who Dow Jones was but he figured he was Baptist because one day he's up and the next day he's down!! Wow....how funny.....how true. We are like that aren't we? But God knows and understands our humanity.....he is however, Elohim...Creator.

Did you know that Matthew 5:46 says "For if you love those who love you, what reward can you have? Do not even the tax collectors do that?" That verse means that when you love someone who is a Joy to love, easy to love, God doesn't receive one ounce of glory. Not one! Do you know what your purpose for life is? It is to glorify God. The reason is, anyone can love someone who is a joy......it is those "testy's" that Beth Moore talks about that are the difficult ones. But it is through those people that God does receive glory because the world looks at us and knows that if we can love people like that, we have something bigger at work in us that they do in them.

Now, let's look at joy for a second. The Bible commands us to be joyful. And commandments are not about choice, they are about obedience. Joy is a choice. Yes, you have to choose to be joyful. It is a decision about how we respond to life's circumstances. For instance. I had a dentist appointment yesterday at 8:30a.m. I went ahead and took my shower, got ready for work and went on to the dentist and thought I'd be out in 45 minutes and on with my day. Well, first of all let me say that did NOT happen. I was in the chair for 2 hours. The tooth in front that he was working on, he had to use a wet drill.......BOY DID THEY NAME THAT CORRECTLY!! I was soaked! When they set me up for a break, I had mascara and eyeliner down to my cheek bones, my hairsprayed bangs were wet and stuck to my forehead and my shirt collar was wet where it had run down my neck and dripped on my shirt. I could have been upset and angry but instead I was tickled so much I could hardly sit there. I was a sight to behold! At this point, the dentist then says.....I think I have some goggles in my car and proceeded to run outside and get them.....this was a kind gesture but a little late.....lol.....I'm not kidding ya'll it was a funny experience. Not to mention I had to go to the bathroom because my coffee was talking to me and I had to go with paper napkin around my neck and front lips packed with gauze and racoon eyes and wet hair....AND the bathrooms were at the front of the office so every door I passed people saw me.....I do hope there weren't any small children in there to be frightened! lol! But the point is, I chose to be Joyful.

Paul preached about the children of Israel last night and we are so much like them. You'd think we had twin sisters named grumble and mumble the way we act sometimes. Lighten up ya'll, laugh at yourself, choose to be joyful. Life is to short to be angry and bitter. Bring some glory to the Savior by choosing the joy in life and Loving the testy's in your life!