What A Difference A Day Makes...

I'm sitting here this morning, watching the rain turn into sleet, and thinking what a difference a day makes. For example, On Saturday, we had beautiful weather at my house-- it was 66 lovely, glorious, degrees.  By Sunday, it was rainy and in the high 30's.  On Saturday, I looked forward to watching my football team, the Bronco's, play in the Superbowl.  By Sunday evening, I was no longer so eager to watch as my team failed to show up and play.  By the way -congrats Seahawks on a well deserved win.    Yesterday, my cat was hiding upstairs hissing with his nose all out of joint because of my in-laws dog who was visiting with them.  Today, the dog has left and my cat has had his kingdom restored to normal.  He once again reigns as the supreme king of Casa Benintendi. So, yes, what a difference a day makes.

This made me think of the verse in Psalm 30:5 where it states "...weeping may remain for a night, but rejoicing comes in the morning."  I blog a lot about joy and love and laughter.  And I believe your life should be full of all of those things.  However, it is true that EVERYONE has those moments of sorrow in their life.  And, I further want to state that it is okay to have those moments.  There are moments when it's appropriate to weep, to feel deep sorrow or loss.  You should allow yourself these moments.

My caution is that you do not allow the moments of sorrow to turn into a lifetime of sorrow.  It can be so easy to become so focused on seeing the bad that you loose sight of the good.  You can develop a certain kind of tunnel vision, where you only focus on certain aspects of life and overlook the rest.  If all I did was watch the news all day long, I could easily become depressed.  They spend a lot of time reporting on the great problems of the world.  And yes, we do face some big problems. However, there's a lot of good things going on in this world in which we live. Yes, we have terrible civil wars going on in parts of Africa, the Middle East, and some of the Asian areas.  But, we also have many people who are reaching out to those affected by these wars to help them find food, shelter, water, and safe places to be.  Yes, there are still terrible diseases out there that still take the lives of many, but we have also found cures and ways to prevent many diseases that used to plague our planet.  Yes, there are some problems with our government and how it is being run.  But, we still live in a nation that allows some of the biggest freedoms for its citizens.  The list goes on and on.

I'm not saying to ignore the issues and problems around you.  I am saying to broaden your focus.  Don't just focus on the negative or bad, look for the good as well.  And, sometimes you simply have to choose joy over sorrow.  There have been multiple studies that show that even if you start your day forcing yourself to smile, by the end of the day you are actually happier and smiling naturally.

So, my challenge to myself and to you is to look for opportunities to choose joy.  I will choose joy knowing that sometimes sorrow will enter my life, but sorrow does not have to BE my life.  I hope wherever you are this Monday morning that joy has found you!

I'll leave you with a photo of Keagan and a Disney character that just embodies the word Joy-- Tigger!