Choose Joy.

 Chew on this:

"Rejoice in hope, be patient in tribulation, be constant in prayer." -Romans 12:12

Why even bother worrying about everything, being anxious about tomorrow, letting it tie you up in knots? A good friend of mine posed the following question on Facebook today: "What do you do when you're anxious and need to unwind?" The responses varied of course, but one rang true. "Praise and worship. Prayer."

It seems so simple doesn't it?  That all we'd have to do to feel at peace would be to pray, to spend time with God?  Who are we without Him, really?  I say all of this to preach to myself too, friends.  Don't think by any means that I am perfect, or that I do what I say I need to do 100% of the time.  I constantly have to remind myself (and be reminded) that tomorrow will come with whatever trials and tribulations that it is supposed to contain.  I cannot do anything to change this, but what I can do is recognize that I am fully equipped to deal with it.  All of it.

What needs to be done is this:

1) Rejoice.  Be joyful. Not fake-joyful, but really JOYFUL.  What does this look like? You know what it looks like: the swell in your heart that you feel when your children run to you at the end of a long day and hug your neck, the look your husband (or wife) gives you when they truly appreciate something (or things) that you have done and no thanks is needed, hearing the rain fall on your window as you fall peacefully asleep, the rainbow you spot on your way to work just as dawn is approaching.  We have moments of joy in our day, and we must embrace them. 

2) Be patient.  This is hard for some of us.  There are those (weird and crazy) people that seem to have all the patience in the world.  When their kids run in the house after being told not to 14 times in a row, they just smile and correct their children again.  I am not one of those people.  I am the mom that locks herself in the bathroom for at least a few minutes so I can cool off and breathe deeply before embracing the madness again in the living room. What I strive to do daily is this: recognize that every moment is a gift, and should be treated as such.  Just like I can't make time slow down, I can't make it speed up either.  I may want something to happen for me or my family NOW, but if it is not God's time for that to happen NOW, then I need to accept it.  Who knows more about what I need: me or God? Exactly.

3) Be constant in prayer. Every morning before I get out of my car at work, I read my devotional and pray.  During our "moment of silence" in 1st period at school, in front of 15 students, I pray.  When the whole "trying to teach teenagers who won't listen to a thing you say because they know more than you" gets to me, I pray.  When I feel like my children are going to be the end of me, I pray.  It's truly the only thing that can calm me down in true, ugly, real moments of anxiety.  Do I still freak out, flip out, feel sorry for myself, and worry? Of course I do. I'm human, and I'm a sinner.

All we can do is do better tomorrow. Try harder. Be better versions of ourselves tomorrow than we are today.