337 – Are You Happy?

#faithbites #faithjourney Happy

I’ve been feeling out of sorts the past few days so I decided to take a mental health day today. I got the kids out the door, came back home, and went to sleep. I slept for three hours and woke up happy. It’s faded since as the weight of the world has come back to me, but happiness is a great feeling to have. It’s different than being content, which I am most days, or ecstatic which comes and goes. The dictionary defines happy as “feeling or showing pleasure or contentment”. It also says fortunate and convenient. I can say I am always happy based on the second definition. I am very fortunate and blessed. To me, those don’t’ equate to the current definition of happiness, or rather is it our perception of what happy should be.

Have we changed the meaning of happy to be something that we can never reach and can only dream of it?

Scripture

• The Lord will fight for you, and you have only to be silent.” – Exodus 14:14
• This is the day that the Lord has made; let us rejoice and be glad in it.- Psalm 118:24
• So also you have sorrow now, but I will see you again, and your hearts will rejoice, and no one will take your joy from you. – John 16:22

Reflection

The Bible is filled with sadness and joy. Many of the characters go through trials and tribulations only to find happiness through worshiping God. I guess life is like that. As it says in Exodus the Lord will fight for you, you only have to be silent. We get in our own way of happiness and don’t allow God’s works to come through.

Yesterday at Church, I was running to the washroom before service started. One of my daughter’s friends mom stopped me and told me about essential oils for anxiety. She knew of a mix that helped her and others overcome some of their anxiety. She was even willing to make a bottle for me to try. To me, that was God being there for me. I just had to be quiet and say thank you.

We are so very blessed in our lives. Too often, I do not rejoice enough in what he has given me. I look at the sorrow and things I don’t have rather than knowing that all of this is God’s and he will make my heart rejoice. I just need to get out of his way.

Charge

Are you sad or lonely? Maybe depressed? Are you dreaming of being happy but happiness seems out of your reach? Talk to God. Then listen to him and be silent. He will give you answers and joy in your heart. This is not a one and done thing either. We need to continually pray, ask for forgiveness when we are wrong, and seek the joy that he gives.

Lord, give me the strength to know what happiness is and the knowledge that I deserve it. Help me to accept the happiness in what you provide rather than searching for something that isn’t real.