Joy In All Things

It's funny how sometimes you look back and realize there had been a whole series of events leading up to one big ordeal. I also think it's funny how God works sometimes. Since I have moved back to Indiana I have had so much time to just think. Now, before I go on, you should know I am not a thinker. In fact, on the Meyers Briggs personality test when it came between thinking and feeling, my score was 17 feeling and zero thinking. Anyway, I talked to a friend yesterday about having all this time to think and told her some of my thoughts. (I shouldn't be allowed all this thinking time.) I told her that I was thinking about joy, and my lack of it someday. I got to thinking...Paul tells us he learned to be content in all circumstances, and it's something that we all should learn. Jesus brings us joy. We are encouraged by hundreds of pinterest quotes to embrace the craziness of life, and enjoy it. Well life has been really crazy lately, and I was trying to be all happy and then I realized I was trying to hard. I literally had to let it go, and let my joy come from Christ, despite how things are going right now. I want a joy in all circumstances, not a joy controlled by circumstances. Last night before I went to bed I decided, I am going to claim joy tomorrow...about 20 minutes ago I got off the phone with my friend (while eating chocolate)  after telling her all about this crazy day. Woke up with a headache, crying babies, things not going planned, high stress level, and other crazy stuff and then I told her "and just this morning I said  was going to have joy today!" we both started laughing. Yeah, today was the crappiest day I've had in a while. But..I have my joy. Not going to waste my time worrying about the temporary. :)

What's next?

Most of you know that the first six months of this year was spent in Greece. After hearing that most people answer back with "what's next?" Good question, for a few months the answer was "freak out" and if I wouldn't have been so busy in Ohio this summer I would have totally freaked out. After living in away from America for a while it sure takes a while to readjust to American life. I caught back on slowly, and now I go to walmart without going into some sort of shock! (sorry for the rabbit trail, attention deficit kicks in stronger than ever these days, haha!) So, what's next? Well, next year I will be on staff as the hospitality assistant at a missions training center in Columbus, Ohio. Jesus is good, but he sure has a sense of humor. All my life I have said "I will never move to Ohio, that's such a boring state. Oh, and you can forget a city too!" This small town Florida, former Hoosier girl ended up in a city..in Ohio. Before my DTS last year, the only time I had been in Ohio was this : On the way to NYC with my aunt's family we stopped real late at a little hotel in Ohio. I was about 10 years old, and my cousin and I had to share a bed, she sat up a minute and I sat up to see what was going on. Except on my way up, she was coming down and elbowed me in the nose. Yep, that led to a really bad nosebleed, and that was my Ohio memory. :P I know it really had nothing to do with my feelings toward Ohio, but it was kind of funny to think about. What can we learn from all of this? Never say never.

Oh, and by the way. Even though I am smiling through the O-H-I-O picture above, I still haven't decided how I feel about OSU..I mean, I don't know...It's a love hate relationship. More like, I love to hate it, but they're growing on me.

Well, that's all for now. Maybe a more detailed post will follow this one. Y'all have a wonderful week!! :)