Joy for the Journey

You know, a speaker friend once told me that whatever she is preparing to speak on or write about, she will be tested on it. If she were to speak on prayer, her prayer life would come under attack, kind of a "practice what you preach" kind of deal. So in July, on the way home from a great vacation, the idea came to write about joy, because I did consider myself a joyful person. That was the last week of July. From August and still now it has been a real struggle to be joyful. Relationships, time committments, the past, the present, our future goals, our jobs, our finances, our time with God in church and throughout the week all seem to make pursuing joy easier or harder, depending on what is going on in our lives at that moment. Joy is always there, just harder to practice when our bottoms fall out. I love that verse in the Bible that says "Oh, that I had the wings of a dove! I would fly away and be at rest-” Psalm 55: 6. These last three months I have felt like flying away quite a bit.

So how do we keep to the path to joy when it seems to disappear down a steep ravine? Or when we see many ups and downs ahead? I am learning, to really appreciate the mountain peaks, we must go through the valleys. Just at that last moment when we give up and say "Whatever God!" He steps in and takes over. I look back and see how far I've come, how I wouldn't take the bad or the good back for a moment to get out of what lays ahead. God has me just where He wants me.

I heard once this analogy: To make a chocolate cake, you use flour (dry), eggs (gooey and slimey), cocoa (bitter), milk (cold), sugar (sweet), and oil or butter (greasy). Most of those things you would not eat or drink alone. But put them all together and they make a moist, chocolatey cake. YUM!!! Our lives are like that- some dry times, some yucky times, some sweet times, some bitter times, but take them all together, and when we get to Heaven God will say "You 're done to perfection!" So press ahead for that day. My joyful tip :
"I am joyful as I keep my eyes on where I am right now and who is directing my path."

TTFN!
Jenn