Catch the Joy

The Joy of the Lord is my strength has a significant and very special meaning to me. In the last 8 and a half years we have experienced much in our life that could have thrown us off the path that the Lord was sending us on. We moved from an area we loved and a home that was set in the mountains of VA to a very flat and wide open home in WV. We struggled the first few years with why here Lord. We had been involved in fostercare hoping to adopt in Roanoke , VA and even took classes here in WV for that as well. We had too many to count "incidents" with people vandalizing our property for a period of a year. Then that stopped abruptly and we began a chapter with our older daughter that has caused much pain and strife in our whole family... that has been over 6 yrs.... this almost destroyed any joy any of us had.... then we began our journey of restoration back to the Lord. One thing I learned thru all of our trials was this principle- No one can take away or rob me or destroy the joy of my salvation.... only I can choose to allow that to happen. Another similar principle is no one eles sins or complaining can rob me of my joy either... Nehemiah 8:10 states The Joy of the Lord is my strength. Joy is an emotion that tickles our tickle box or makes our eyes bright and gleaming. Joy springs assurance in your being when your circumstances look overwhelming. Joy is the excitement of Jesus swelling up in your heart when there is no reason to be excited. Joy is the confirmation in your soul that, whatever happens in life, Jesus is right beside you- giving you the strength you need for the journey. So when we began to feel like complaining or cry, catch the joy!