{"id":15719,"date":"2016-05-30T01:01:23","date_gmt":"2016-05-30T06:01:23","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/christianrep.com\/blog\/?p=15719"},"modified":"2020-06-06T16:07:07","modified_gmt":"2020-06-06T21:07:07","slug":"joy-is-a-condition-of-my-heart","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/christianrep.com\/blog\/2016\/05\/30\/joy-is-a-condition-of-my-heart\/","title":{"rendered":"Joy is a Condition of my Heart"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"https:\/\/christianrep.com\/blog\/2016\/05\/30\/joy-is-a-condition-of-my-heart\/happiness-requires-no-effort-week-3\/\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-15720\"><img fetchpriority=\"high\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-15720\" src=\"http:\/\/christianrep.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/05\/happiness-requires-no-effort-week-3.jpg\" alt=\"happiness requires no effort week 3\" width=\"960\" height=\"700\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p><strong>Joy is a Condition of my Heart Week 3<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Before this study, have you ever really thought about joy being a heart matter?<\/p>\n<p>In our day to day life, there are so many uncertain things, uncontrollable things and scary things.\u00a0 Those are the kinds of conditions that we simply have no control over.\u00a0 The condition of our heart is completely ours to control.<\/p>\n<p>You may have heard the saying<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #ff0000;\"><strong>J = Jesus<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #ff0000;\"><strong>O = Others<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #ff0000;\"><strong>Y = Yourself <\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n<p>While this saying is completely true, the problems come in when we forget the \u201cY\u201d in joy.<\/p>\n<p>As ladies, we are typically so busy being wonder woman wife, caring daughter, fearless mom, awesome employee, awesome employer, leader, blogger, and a whole host of other things that <strong>we<\/strong> forget to take some time out for ourselves.<\/p>\n<p>Kay reminds us that to nurture and build <strong>joy in ourselves we must:<\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Focus on Grace<\/li>\n<li>Trust God for the Future<\/li>\n<li>Have Balance in our Life<\/li>\n<li>Practice Acceptance<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><em>\u201cHappiness comes unbidden and unexpectedly and can leave just as abruptly; joy can be available anytime, anywhere, anyplace but it is a result of our decision to choose it.\u201d \u00a0~ Kay Warren<\/em><\/p>\n<p>As a child of the King, doing the things listed above doesn\u2019t give us the right to trample all over God\u2019s amazing grace and live a life that will kill our relationship with God, but on the other hand, never obeying the Word of the Lord will also kill our relationship with God.<\/p>\n<p>Choosing joy isn\u2019t always easy, but that is where our faith grows.<\/p>\n<p>All of us at some point will experience great sorrow, but IN that great sorrow is an Almighty God that will never leave us alone.<\/p>\n<p>Doing the things Kay reminds us of will get our minds and hearts in the right direction.\u00a0 Take time daily to do something for yourself that will warm your heart and bring a smile to your face.<\/p>\n<p>We forget that WE are loved unconditionally by our heavenly Father even though He knows the worst in us.\u00a0 He chooses to love us in spite of our short comings.\u00a0 Yes, we want to get better, yes we want to reflect HIS love and compassion and yes, we want to ultimately live like Jesus.\u00a0 As long as we remain in our human body, we will fall short.<\/p>\n<p>Extend yourself some grace while trusting the Lord.\u00a0 When you fall short, stumble or even freak out over various situations \u2013 ask God to forgive you, forgive yourself and then take the next step. Doing this for yourself will allow you even more freedom to nurture joy in others.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Nurturing Joy in Others: <\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Believe the Best about Others<\/li>\n<li>Offer Nonjudgmental Love<\/li>\n<li>Empathize with other\u2019s Feelings<\/li>\n<li>Appreciate Other\u2019s efforts<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>When we have been hurt by others, beat down or even unappreciated, many find it difficult to extend their heart to spread joy to others.\u00a0 It\u2019s painful.<\/p>\n<p>Sometimes believing the best about others will turn out that we were completely wrong in our beliefs.\u00a0 They control what we see, they show us only what they want us to see, and then the truth comes out (it always does) and we are hurt because we are taken advantage of.\u00a0 Don\u2019t let this stop you from making a difference in the heart and life of others.<\/p>\n<p>We need to push past our hurts, our fears and the things that hold us back from making a difference for others.\u00a0 We will disappoint others as well as be disappointed.<\/p>\n<p>We also need to push past our guilt when trying to make a difference for others\u2019.\u00a0 Many of us desire to do more or value what we do for others based on the \u201ccost\/price\u201d we had to pay.<\/p>\n<p>Look at the few things Kay listed for us and tell me the value.\u00a0 Believe, offer, empathize and appreciate are all things that will not cost us a single penny, but are priceless!\u00a0 When we are giving these types of gifts, we often negate their value and as a result, feel guilty for \u201cnot doing more.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>At Spreading Joy, I\u2019m always reminding people that everything you do impacts hearts.\u00a0 Everything!<\/p>\n<p>When you are making a difference for others, train your heart not to look at the price tag.\u00a0 Look at the smile of those you are spreading joy to!<\/p>\n<p>If finances are an issue, I have written over 100 ways to make a difference without spending a single penny.\u00a0 <a href=\"http:\/\/spreading-joy.org\/site\/50-ways-to-make-a-difference-without-spending-a-penny\/\">http:\/\/spreading-joy.org\/site\/50-ways-to-make-a-difference-without-spending-a-penny\/<\/a><\/p>\n<p>Use them freely.\u00a0 There is a free pdf at the end of that article as well as a link to an additional 50 ways to make a difference without spending any money.<\/p>\n<p>Have fun spreading joy to others!<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/christianrep.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/05\/choose-joy-week-3.pdf\"><span style=\"color: #ff0000;\"><strong>Download your Free PDF Worksheet here<\/strong><\/span><\/a><\/p>\n<p><strong>Discussion: <\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong>Answer any or all of the following questions<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong>\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n<ol>\n<li>On a scale of 1-10 how regularly do you trust God for the future<\/li>\n<li>On a scale of 1-10 how readily do you believe the best about others<\/li>\n<li>On a scale of 1-10 how readily do you forgive others<\/li>\n<li>On a scale of 1-10 how often do you applaud others\u2019 efforts<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Joy is a Condition of my Heart Week 3 Before this study, have you ever really thought about joy being a heart matter? In our day to day life, there are so many uncertain things, uncontrollable things and scary things.\u00a0 Those are the kinds of conditions that we simply have no control over.\u00a0 The condition &hellip; <\/p>\n<p class=\"link-more\"><a href=\"https:\/\/christianrep.com\/blog\/2016\/05\/30\/joy-is-a-condition-of-my-heart\/\" class=\"more-link\">Read more<span class=\"screen-reader-text\"> &#8220;Joy is a Condition of my Heart&#8221;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":true,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[6206,23],"tags":[7225,7251,7250,7148],"class_list":["post-15719","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-bible-lesson","category-marie","tag-bible-study","tag-choose-joy","tag-kay-warren","tag-online-bible-study"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/christianrep.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15719","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/christianrep.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/christianrep.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/christianrep.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/christianrep.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=15719"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/christianrep.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15719\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":17577,"href":"https:\/\/christianrep.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15719\/revisions\/17577"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/christianrep.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=15719"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/christianrep.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=15719"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/christianrep.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=15719"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}