welcome to my wander...

Digging through a shoebox of random old stuff tonight. Found this written on a piece of paper, something I wrote in the summer after my freshman year of college…

Joy is a choice that you make. Happiness is a choice that you make. Being joyful and being happy are things that are completely independent of the circumstances going on around you. What that means is, the things that are going on in your life have absolutely no effect on your choice to be happy and joyful in the Lord. You may have a bad day. A lot of bad things may happen to you. But in the end, no matter what is going on, it all comes down to a choice…Am I going to praise God through this anyways, and be joyful because I know he loves me and that’s all that matters…or not? That’s it. A yes or no question. Yes to be joyful anyways, or no. Situations don’t become problems in your life until you let them become bigger than your God. In the end, there’s always a choice to say, “My Jesus loves me, and that’s all that matters. I’m going to praise him no matter what, bad days or good days, problems or no problems, suffering or no suffering.”