JOY

        Had a wonderful weekend! Friday I was blessed to have the day off from work. While I love my job and feel fortunate to have such a wonderful job but having the day off was much needed! Friday I hung out with my cousins and some other family. Saturday just layed low and then went and celebrated our dear friend Sean Po's birthday. Yesterday was a crazy day! My cousin and I were on our way to a baby shower when she got some bad news. I ended up getting to hang out with her absolutely adorable daughter for most of the afternoon and evening I enjoyed hanging out with her so much! It just made me even more excited for God to bless us with a baby one day! After I got home and sat down Jeremy and I watched one of our DVR'd shows we exited out of the show to a sermon on TV. I have never heard of the guy before and was VERY sceptical but what he was talking about was DEFINATLY a message directly from God to me.
       It was about JOY! I have been a very joy filled person. God had blessed me with parents that instilled CHOOSING JOY everyday but the past year or two I had forgotten what that meant. I have felt that because my life isn't exactly the way I wanted it that I couldn't be happy. I have been robbing myself and Jeremy of the happiness that we should have because of a few things in my life that have brought me down. The Pastor talked about choosing to allow the joy/happiness that God has put inside of me to come out and overflow into all areas of my life. He talked about THIS is the day that the Lord has made let us REJOICE and be GLAD in it. He didn't say FRIDAY is the day the Lord has made I will rejoice on FRIDAY and be GLAD it's the weekend... not we are to REJOICE and BE GLAD EVERDAY! So often people (including me) get so caught up their circumstances they forget to look at the blessings.
Here are some of the examples he used....

•  I have to clean my house.... CHANGE to I GET TO CLEAN MY HOUSE... at least I don't live under a bridge. 
•  I have to go to work....... CHANGE to I GET TO GO TO WORK... at least I have a job! (you'd be amazed if you lost your job and had no job for several months and no money how excited you'd be to have even you old job back).
• I have to make dinner... CHANGE to I GET TO COOK DINNER ... at least you have food to eat and are healthy enough to eat.
• I have to workout... CHANGE to I get to work out... you are able bodied and able to work out!
• I HAVE to do the laundry... CHANGE to I GET to do laundry at least I have clothes to wash and the means to wash them.
• All I do is serve my kids cook and clean... Change to I GET TO SERVE MY KIDS they are blessings.
• Urg... I am so miserable (pregnant girl talking) I hate being pregnant... change to I am SO excited God has blessed us, this is no walk in the park but what A BLESSING.
• I HAVE to go and do my Christmas/Birthday/Valentines day shopping for so and so.... change to I GET to bless my family/friends/spouse with a gift because they are a blessing to me not to mention praise God I have money to do so!

 That was alot of examples, but so often I hear or see (facebook) people complaining about every thing in their lives and most recently i have been struck about how people don't think about who they are talking to or who their audience is. So often we are very selfish we complain about our jobs and people we work with, yet there is someone who would LOVE a job to be able to pay their bills and make ends meat, we complain about our spouses yet there is someone listening or reading that would LOVE to be married and have a companion, people complain about their kids or pregnancies and I have to say for me this one drives me NUTS(if you don't already know Jeremy and I have been trying to have a baby for over a year and a half)! God has blessed you with a child that is more then myself and many others can say and we would LOVE to be blessed in that way. All of this to say many of us need to change our prospectives in life. Think about the positives not the negatives. in 1 Thessalonians it says "Be JOYFUL ALWAYS, pray CONTINUOUSLY give THANKS IN ALL CIRCUMSTANCES for this is God's will for YOU in Christ Jesus."
       I am not saying that I am innocent in all of this, I am far from it that is why I felt the need to blog about it because I think almost everyone is guilty of this (some more then others).

As I close I think about this song..

Count your blessings,
name them one by one, Count your blessings,

see what God has done! Count your blessings,

name them one by one,

And it will surprise you what the Lord has done.