Rediscovering Christmas – Choosing Joy Today

Joy to the world! The Lord is come.
Let earth receive her King
Let every heart
Prepare Him room
And heaven and nature sing
And heaven and nature sing
And heaven and heaven and nature sing

Joy.

Is joy something we choose or is it determine by our circumstances?

How do you answer this question?

Last evening’s Finding Joy Ladies’ Night Out was a beautiful reality of deep-down joy. I joined Lauren Gaskill and 128 other amazing women on a 2-1/2 hour journey of finding joy during the holidays. The link is available on Facebook through Monday, December 12. It’ll be moved to iTunes after that.

The thing is, I woke up this morning not feeling so joyful. I felt tired, worn out, and a little joyless. My daughter and I ended up spending the morning running a couple errands while battling similar joyless attitudes. I kept saying out loud,

“We’re choosing joy today.”

And we did. Even though we experienced awful customer service at a local store. Even as we traveled in slow-moving traffic. It was a fight to choose joy while feeling tired and hungry. But, I was determined… nothing was going to steal my joy today. Nothing.

How about you?

Are you choosing joy today?

Choosing joy through the holidays is a must for me. I cannot let the hustle and bustle deplete me of my joy. I can’t let the seasonal stress rob me of it. The truth is, nothing or no one can really touch my joy unless I allow it. Joy doesn’t come from without. I believe joy comes from within, given to us by God, Himself.

I keep returning to a comment made at the end of last night’s program. Someone in the audience mentioned the song Joy to the World. Because the Lord has come, there is joy in the world. Isn’t this the reason we celebrate Christmas? Because of Jesus’ birth, isn’t this the entire point of the Christmas season? Let’s not miss it this year, friend.

Let’s rejoice in Immanuel today and prepare Him room. We’ll be discussing this on Monday, and I invite you back for our conversation.

In the meantime, I encourage you to take a few moments to pull up the song Joy to the World and listen to it. Really listen to it. Allow yourself to pay attention to the words of this familiar song. Ponder them, and let them sink in. As a result, I believe it’ll make a beautiful difference in your day and in your heart.

Keep choosing joy today.

Joy to the World!

Blessings,

Julie

 

 

If you’ve missed any prior Rediscovering Christmas posts, you can catch up here.