Life group challenge week 2: The small things
7:43 PMAh, joy! Sweet joy! This fruit of the spirit doesn't seem too hard to work on. Almost effortless? Goodness, I can be so naive sometimes. Once again within the first 48 hours of this new challenge being spoken out and accepted I failed again. And again I just let it happen. I noticed the things that instantly took my joy away were so small. When I got a moment to sit down and soak in all of the pieces of my day that were still angering me at 5 pm I realized they were all small and they were honestly all out of my hands. I allowed other people to define my joy instead of proclaiming it through Christ. 1 Thessalonians 5:16-18 says:
Be joyful always, pray at all times, be thankful in all circumstances. This is what God wants from you in your life in union with Christ Jesus.
This is my verse for the week. Simple and powerful all at the same time. My joy ran dry as soon as I woke up that morning all because I allowed it to. So I started thinking of ways to fix this problem. How can I make sure that these things which are, inevitably, out of my hands not effect me and steal my joy. Yes, turning my downcast face toward Christ, praying, reading scripture, etc but to be honest I can't do that right away. I watch 4 kids throughout the week. I can't just sit down and pick up my Bible nor can I hit my knees in the middle of the day and start praying. So I thought of a practical way that I can still claim my joy in Christ when my day gets hard. My solution? Find the small things. This is the list I came up with for today. All of the things today that made me joyous and they were all incredibly small. Normally I would pass them off as nothing but I realized when I focused on them my heart was glad.
-My pastor's message today
-Friends who come to me with their heart
-A sweet friend quick to offer help even when Kaleb and I didn't need it
-Flexible bosses who allow me to spend time with family and friends
-My husband always helping. Cooking, folding laundry, etc.
-Clean sheets on my bed
-Laundry caught up with for the week
-Compromises
-Hearing Kim Walker-Smith speak in tongues during her songs
-Hearing Kim Walker-Smith speak in tongues during her songs
-Good conversations
-Watching my girls grow closer
-Holding sweet babies
-New clothes
-Dear friends getting to go to Altitude
Haha what a silly list but all of these things brought great joy to my heart today. Actually, insane amounts of joy! I serve a good, good God and I know He gave me a life worth finding joy in. Even in the smallest of things.
0 comments