I recently realized that I’m happier than most people I know. I’ve often been called nice, easy going, smiley, etc. but those are just the outward results. The underlying fact is that I’m happy, really happy, not the shallow fleeting happy, but the kind of happiness that is full of true JOY and PEACE, the kind that comes from God.
I haven’t always been this way. Our many moves as a child often left me sad and depressed for months on end. My 5th grade teacher even told my parents that I was “living under a dark cloud of depression”. Yet, somewhere in the midst of growing up things changed. Along the way I made a choice, a choice to enjoy life regardless of the crap that happens, a choice to let God fill me with the peace and joy He created me to have. Each day brings new opportunities, new experiences, new starts. Each day is a gift from God, why not be joyful?
I know that being happy is not always easy or simple. I don’t want to tell everyone to put on a fake smile and pretend to be happy. I’ve lived behind the mask of false happiness before and it’s not a fun place to be. I just want to encourage each of you to make a choice. My mom used to say you can get happy in the same pants you got angry in, and she was right, it is a choice. Why not try to choose to let God fill you with some of His joy today, see if your day doesn’t go a little better.
That was a blog I wrote somewhere in the middle of Thailand. It got lost in my collection of blogs to one day post until now. It’s ironic that I found it considering I’ve just come out of an unhappy spell….
