Skip to main content

joie de vivre

I have a confession to make: when it comes to my kids, I'm a hypocrite.

That may sound a bit harsh, but it's true.

Like parents from all over the world, I strive to raise my kids to follow God. I want them to know Him deeply, to realize just how amazing it is that the Creator of the Universe chose them--that He loves them. I want them to walk closely to Him
and to have the peace that passes all understanding, to realize that their joy is not defined by their circumstances.

The thing is, lately I've let my circumstances steal my joy.

It didn't happen all at once, but there's no denying that my once ever-present optimism and joie de vivre have faded these last few years.

Yes, the circumstances in my life have been hard. If you read through some old posts you can see that it's been a hard decade, one I never could have imagined. I can't change what all has happened, even if I wanted to--life's funny that way.

The thing is, I can change how I react to things.

I can stop pitying myself when things go wrong.
I can choose not to dwell on the negatives.
I can remember that, no matter what happens, I have the only assurance I need:
 "I am with you and will watch over you wherever you go, and I will bring you back to this land. I will not leave you until I have done what I have promised you." ~Genesis 28:15
Labels:

Comments

  1. JillJune 2, 2014 at 7:19 PM

    Can totally relate, especially today for some unknown reason. You bring up good reminders.

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Thoughts? I would love to hear them!
~Mandy

Popular posts from this blog

a little bit of physics (don't be scared!)

"by faith we understand that the universe was formed at God's command, so that what is seen was not made out of what was visible." hebrews 11:3 this is one of my favorite verses--i call it my physics verse because to me it is tying together my faith and subatomic particles. no, really--i mean it! when i first started working on a degree in physics and a minor in biology, somebody (i don't remember who anymore, but it seems like it was somebody on some kind of discussion board...) told me that i would forget about all that dumb "christianity" (<--spell checker doesn't like that. hmm...) stuff. once i had been educated, i would see that faith was superstition and a pointless waste of time, something for the ignorant, uneducated masses.  while i'm sure that is the conclusion some people come to, it sure wasn't for me.                          ...
9 comments
Read more

one word for 2013

How many times growing up were you told to be a leader? Our society seems focused on being the leader, the one out in front all the time. We are taught to develop our leadership skills we pick team captains from childhood we strive for promotions we work hard to be at the front of the pack. I'm definitely no exception--I worked hard to become captain of my cheer squad from middle school on through my senior year, I studied to be at the head of my class and then get into the Honors Program at Tech when I started college (the first time around , anyways!), I developed the skills that would get me into grad school. I was taught to lead instead of just going along with the crowd. What if there's something else being asked of me, though? Hang with me here--if you're like me, this concept is a bit of a hard pill to swallow. What if, instead of being pushed to become a leader, I'm being asked to simply... Follow. That is my word for 2013. It found me unexpect...
13 comments
Read more

Stand up and speak

 Pastor Allen Jackson recently said, "I think when you accept your Christian identity card for the Kingdom, you forfeit your neutrality with evil." In my writing here, I haven't been very vocal when it comes to politics. A quick count based on the "politics" tag shows 37 of 409 posts, so 9% through the years. Of those, I've been pretty diplomatic in my writing--encouraging you to do the research and exercise your right and responsibility to vote, no matter who you vote for. I've basically remained neutral...but I don't think that is something we can do any longer. If you listen to the loudest voices in our society right now, we as Christians should keep our beliefs out of our politics. We are told to keep quiet, and if we do on occasion try to speak up for biblical truths we are told that our words are hateful and bigoted. As a result, most of us have listened. We've pretty much agreed to sit down and shut up. It's past time for us to stand u...
Post a Comment
Read more