{"id":15724,"date":"2016-06-06T01:01:34","date_gmt":"2016-06-06T06:01:34","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/christianrep.com\/blog\/?p=15724"},"modified":"2020-06-06T15:51:17","modified_gmt":"2020-06-06T20:51:17","slug":"joy-is-a-choice-of-my-behavior","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/christianrep.com\/blog\/2016\/06\/06\/joy-is-a-choice-of-my-behavior\/","title":{"rendered":"Joy is a Choice of My Behavior"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"https:\/\/christianrep.com\/blog\/2016\/06\/06\/joy-is-a-choice-of-my-behavior\/respond-to-life-with-joy-week-4\/\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-15725\"><img fetchpriority=\"high\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-15725\" src=\"http:\/\/christianrep.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/05\/respond-to-life-with-joy-week-4.png\" alt=\"respond to life with joy week 4\" width=\"720\" height=\"720\" \/><\/a>Joy is a Choice of My Behavior Week 4<\/p>\n<p>So many things are out of reach as well as out of our ability to control, but our behavior, that\u2019s not one of those things.<\/p>\n<p>When we are choosing joy, we need to realize that what we say, think, do as well as how we treat ourselves matters.<\/p>\n<p><strong><em>If it matters to you, then it matters to God.\u00a0 He cares.\u00a0 <\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Kay tells us that <strong><em>\u201cUnresolved emotional pain and brokenness can make choosing joy on a daily basis challenging\u201d<\/em><\/strong> and that we need to take care of ourselves.<\/p>\n<p>Choosing joy is not always easy and sometimes can be most difficult, but it is possible to do so and to choose joy daily.<\/p>\n<p><strong>She gives us some practical things that will help us in our desire to choose joy:<\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Look for a Joy Mentor<\/strong> \u2013 find someone who is more than just a happy personality, but rather a sister that will find joy in the tears, God in the ordinary and is thankful for the perfect will of God even though it is painful. Release the little girl in you to experience unbridled joy.\u00a0 I love that she calls children \u201cjoy factories,\u201d as they truly do just soak up the precious moments surrounding them.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Avoid Small Potatoes <\/strong>\u2013 I often remind people that it\u2019s the little things that make life big. While completely true, it\u2019s also the little things that steal your joy.\u00a0 Traffic, spat with family, flat tires, things not going the way as planned, etc.\u00a0 Joy thieves are waiting in each instance of your day for one purpose\u2026to steal your joy.\u00a0 You get to choose if you hand it over willingly or not.\u00a0 Choose wisely.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Rediscover Pleasure <\/strong>\u2013 I often talk about ordinary joy and the hidden treasures in our day to day life. I tease my boss sometimes by saying \u201cI want it all and I want it wrapped\u201d but truth is, we do want the best of the best and often miss the greatest joys in the most ordinary of things.\u00a0\u00a0 The feeling of stomping through puddles, the giggles of joy when romping through grass, the cheesy look of the full moon as he lights up the darkest night.\u00a0 When you open your eyes to see the treasures in the ordinary, they quickly become priceless treasures.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Express Affection Extravagantly <\/strong>\u2013 I\u2019m a hugger. When you meet me, you\u2019ll likely get a hug, huge smile and hearty hello.\u00a0 Many people can barely make eye contact, much less express affection in this manner.\u00a0 I challenge you to step out of your comfort zone when in public this week and smile bigger, greet others with a warm handshake or if circumstances allow it a warm hug.\u00a0 You\u2019ll be amazed at what it does for YOUR heart.<\/li>\n<li><strong>See the Humor <\/strong>\u2013 I love laughing. Often when I\u2019m laughing, I don\u2019t realize it but I carry a lot of volume, and sometimes my children don\u2019t see the humor in that. Making the best of the worst situations sometimes requires seeing the humor.\u00a0 Sometimes you are the one that can point it out, when no one else even sees it.\u00a0 Recently we had our family vacation.\u00a0 Whirlwind, lots of driving but lots of fun.\u00a0 On the way home we had a plan to just drive straight through (12 hours) and take one day to rest before finishing up our final trip home, another 13 hours.\u00a0 Four hours into the trip our tire blows.\u00a0 We don\u2019t have a special tool we need to change it, so what went from normal 30 minute inconvenience was now an almost 5 hour ordeal.\u00a0 We \u201cpicnicked\u201d on the side of the interstate, laughed and had a good time while basking in the morning\/afternoon sun.\u00a0 We get another 3 hours under our belt and another tire \u201csounded funny.\u201d\u00a0 We pull over and sure enough the tread is ripped and the tire needed to be replaced.\u00a0 We immediately find a Wal-Mart Tire Center, take it in while they are changing the 2<sup>nd<\/sup> tire, we shop.\u00a0 We are laughing at the craziness of it all when my son hugged me and said \u201cMom, I\u2019m glad you are my mom, because with anyone else, this would have really been bad.\u201d I reminded him we can\u2019t change the situation so we needed to simply enjoy it and reminded him that we may never know what God protected us from.\u00a0 Find the humor!\u00a0 Kay reminds us that <em>\u201cwhen you recognize both the pain and the humor around you, you take another step toward knowing true joy.\u201d<\/em><\/li>\n<li><strong>Practice Gratitude \u2013 <\/strong>Even if we are never blessed with another \u201cgreat thing\u201d we can always be grateful for our home in heaven, the amazing grace of God and His never ending mercy. There is always something to be thankful for. Question is, will you see it during the storm that rages?\u00a0 Will you see it in the ordinary?\u00a0 Will you be looking for it?\u00a0 When you are thinking about all the great things that surround you, you will be thankful.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Live in the Moment \u2013<\/strong> I love those precious moments where joy just bursts into your heart from the most unexpected places! Trouble is, we want to live there all the time.\u00a0 If we were to never experience pain or sorrow, we could never truly experience great joy.\u00a0 Stop looking at the trouble you are enduring and focus on the priceless moments of joy and blessings.\u00a0 If your sorrows are so great, grief so heavy and burdens are so deep, then take time each day to focus on the blessings of heaven, amazing grace and God\u2019s great mercy by way of the gift of the cross. Live in that, even when the storm is raging.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Find the Blessing in the Mess \u2013<\/strong> Have you ever watched a child play in the rain, mud or even finger paint? Have you just quietly observed their smile and laughter or do you see just the mess they are making? Inside of every mess we get ourselves into, or the ones that seem to sneak up on us, there IS a blessing.\u00a0 I have no clue what it could be, but seek it out! Look for it! If you never find the blessing in the mess, then trust God to work it out for your good.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Passing the JOY on \u2013<\/strong> Our tag line at Spreading Joy Corporation is \u201cThere\u2019s no joy like spreading joy.\u201d There simply isn\u2019t. If you want joy to be at your very core, then \u201cgive.\u201d\u00a0 If you want to have joy flooding your heart each day, then \u201cdo.\u201d If you want joy to be a way of life, then \u201cserve.\u201d Don\u2019t think about how you\u2019ll be thanked, who will see, how much value your act of joy is worth, just do it.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>JOY is a choice!<\/p>\n<p>Create JOY, Cause JOY and Spread JOY while you are choosing JOY!<\/p>\n<p>Thank you for allowing me the honor of leading this Bible Study.\u00a0 Thank you for the desire to be men and women of joy!<\/p>\n<p>If you\u2019d like more help and\/or ideas about Spreading Joy, you can check out our book here, Spreading Joy Daily as well as our most popular articles encouraging you in JOY listed here.\u00a0 <a href=\"http:\/\/www.spreading-joy.org\/site\/quick-links\/\">http:\/\/www.spreading-joy.org\/site\/quick-links\/<\/a><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #ff0000;\"><strong><a href=\"http:\/\/christianrep.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/05\/choose-joy-week-4.pdf\">Download your free PDF Worksheet Here<\/a>\u00a0<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n<p><strong>Discussion Questions<\/strong><\/p>\n<ol>\n<li>How can you choose joy daily?<\/li>\n<li>What does the Lord is your strength mean to you?<\/li>\n<li>Psalm 126:5 \u2013 what does that mean to you? How can you apply it to your daily life<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Joy is a Choice of My Behavior Week 4 So many things are out of reach as well as out of our ability to control, but our behavior, that\u2019s not one of those things. When we are choosing joy, we need to realize that what we say, think, do as well as how we treat &hellip; <\/p>\n<p class=\"link-more\"><a href=\"https:\/\/christianrep.com\/blog\/2016\/06\/06\/joy-is-a-choice-of-my-behavior\/\" class=\"more-link\">Read more<span class=\"screen-reader-text\"> &#8220;Joy is a Choice of My Behavior&#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":[7225,7251,34,7250,7148],"class_list":["post-15724","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-bible-lesson","category-marie","tag-bible-study","tag-choose-joy","tag-joy","tag-kay-warren","tag-online-bible-study"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/christianrep.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15724","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=15724"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/christianrep.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15724\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":17575,"href":"https:\/\/christianrep.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15724\/revisions\/17575"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/christianrep.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=15724"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/christianrep.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=15724"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/christianrep.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=15724"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}