Choosing JOY?

 
I have always felt the phrase “choosing joy”, has not been turned around and used as an excuse for phoniness or denial.
  It makes me think of a plastic smile on a young mothers’ face, her children screaming and throwing fits all around her, her house a disaster, her dog barking, her hair slipping out of her pony-tail.
  Yet when you ask her how she is, she grunts through gritted teeth, “I am choosing JOY!”….Yuck, I don’t know how to talk to people like that, let’s be real girlfriend, you are a mess!

Yesterday, I woke early with much to accomplish.
  I was to have an intimate dinner birthday party for our “adopted”  28 year old son, Justin.
  The kids had invited some friends as well.
  I had my recipes set up,(cooking for people is how I show love) and the China washed and ready to go…I was going to clean my carpets while the kids studied, and prepare a special desert…run to the store for some fresh herbs, a gift and a card.
 

The phone rang early, the look on
Gary
’s face said it all.
  My family got hit with a bombshell! Lies, accusation, harassment, absurdity, I won’t go into the details, they do not deserve the acknowledgement, but we were blindsided by some very misinformed, sad individuals. Everything I had planned for the day went out the window.
  Phone calls, digging through documents, exactly what the enemy wanted, to distract and destroy.
  At five pm, exhausted, angry, still not showered, house a mess, not chopped or puréed a thing…guest’s to arrive in one hour. 
  They would have understood if we called and said, “today this was too much,” but we took a deep breath, and the whole family kicked it into turbo mode.
  Turns out my boy’s know how to set a beautiful table, Caleb can put some serious muscle into his vacuuming, the girls can whip up a perfect desert in no time…the candles where glowing the house smelled wonderful, and by the time we sat to eat…we were full of JOY.
  We had an amazing night, we laughed, we cried, we honored  and toasted our guest.
  We sat up in the candlelight until
10:30
talking with our children and loving our family….it was the perfect night. I smiled as I closed the door to our bedroom and hugged my husband close to me. My heart was at perfect peace, the harassment would be waiting for us the next morning, we could not change that, but our hearts were calm.
 
 No one can take away your joy, the harder they try the harder you fight for it.
  Real authentic JOY can only come from the peace of knowing WE are not in control.
  My smile was not plastic; it came from a place deep with in me, a soul bubbling over with the blessings and JOY of a simple but beautiful life! A gift from the Creator Himself…