Her Journey to Joy

Yesterday was a challenging day at work.  I found the fact that I cannot control allsituations and all outcomes extremely frustrating.  I know, can you say “Type A” personality?  My goals and expectations of those I workwith rival my own.  I can single handedlywork towards the improvement of an outcome, but without a combined effortsthough the process and a single-minded goal that is shared by all members of the team, the results are fruitless.  

Feeling frustrated I decided that I needed to define and remember whose team I am on:

Yes, I am on a team of folks that I work with.  I work for my boss, and I hope that I move business in the direction that he wants to see it moved.  I take pride in my performance, and I want to honor the trust that my boss has placed in me by producing a quality product that he can be proud of.

I am on Team Holverson. Gary and I work diligently together to train, motivate, love and discipline our children to love and fear the Lord.  We place high regard on developing a good character in Christ.  We want our children to love each other and show respect to each other. I want them to love life and find interests that set their souls on fire.

I am a member of a unique group of women that love each other and walk alongside each other to support and encourage a commitment to a godly marriage and a pleasing heart.  We bear each other’s burdens.  We cry and laugh with each other.  I know how rare this group of women is and I am honored to be a part of it.

I am a member of my church. I am a part of the body of Christ that identifies with my beliefs, and we adhere to the guidelines of the membership of our church.

Gary and I are involved in a marriage bible study that holds us accountable to living and loving the way Christ’s word tells us to.  We have put a lot of hard work into our marriage and know this will always be an ever changing and always challenging relationship.  I truly believe that God refines our character through the sweat and toil of our spouse.

There are many other groups, purposes and friends that Iteam up with to walk through life.  They all serve a purpose at different times. My involvement rises and falls based on time and commitment to the process.

So, whose team am I on?

Hopefully, someone who would look into my life and answer “Team Jesus”!  If you walk up to my desk at the office, you would see pictures of my kiddos, a verse of the day calendar and about 5 different signs, magnets and note pads that say, “choose joy”!  Someone would see my commitment to surround myself with reminders of joy and may ponder why I feel that I NEED to choose it.  Joy should come naturally, shouldn’t it?  

If I am going to be honest, that has been a struggle in my heart for years.  I am thankful and truly blessed.  I have desired to have a husband and kiddos since I can remember. With the blessings of family often come the responsibilities of being an adult.   I find that some of my blessings can cause me to feel things other than joy. I feel the burden of some of my responsibilities.  I am human and am subject to human frailties.  I get physically tired, and I feel emotionally tired.  If given the choice to not be so “blessed” I would never choose less of life’s challenges.   It is through the daily struggles that I need to remind myself to “choose joy”!  If I allow myself to have a pity party or my thoughts become so self-focused, I miss the details and blessings that flow from my Father who is a God of detail and the master of the plan.

Jeremiah 29:11-13states, “For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the Lord, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.  Then you will call on me and come and pray to me, and I will listen to you.  You will seek me, and you will find me when you seek me with all your heart.”

When my focus is on me and not on seeking the Lord, the burdens of my blessings cause me to look inward and feel sorry for myself.  When I seek God and find Him and spend timewith Him, my perspective becomes His prospective and I feel the freedom to express true joy that comes from the Lord in my heart.  The choice to pursue God’s view for my attitude and blessings helps me to live in a light of “joy” that surpasses my physical and emotional frailties.  So, the mantra that I have lived by “Choose Joy” has become more evolved into “Her Journey to Joy”.  Joy is a choice and a journey.  Until I have mastered the “joy thing” I have surrendered to the journey.

Please join me in “Her Journey to Joy”.

Kathy

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