A Year of Goodness. Looking in all the wrong places.

 My Nana was a very joyous person.  She thought everyone was wonderful.  She was happy baking a cake or plucking a chicken.   I have known a few people who are just always cheerful and they make you feel good.   Being around them is just uplifting.  And we all know people that make you feel like you need a blood (and morale transfusion) after being around them a short while!

There seems no correlation between the circumstances of these extremes.  There are blessed and wealthy people who are always miserable and there are poor and sick, even dying, people who are always joyful.

I am writing this on Pentecost Sunday because I have been thinking on this all day.  One of the gifts of the Holy Spirit is joy.   And what a gift.   It cannot be bought but people spend a lot of money looking for it in all the wrong places.  Some of the places people look are actually guaranteed to cause pain and not joy at all. 

Killing pain is also not the same thing as joy.   Although it's good to not be in pain!  Finding a way to be numb and not care...  we have all been there but it is also far from joy.

Some people can get everything on their list of dreams and be blessed beyond measure and nope they don't have joy.   It is a gift.   Actually it is a gift you can receive and be completely filled with joy and peace,  that surpasses all understanding.   You can turn to your Bible and find out more about this.

They say misery loves company.  There are people who are not happy unless you aren't.  Worse,  your joy can deeply bother/mystify/offend some.  Maybe this is where the saying comes from that the best revenge is just to be happy.  Some people can just not stand it!   But joy and goodness offend them so much that really leads me to a discussion for another time.  I saw a post recently thats said darkness cannot stand light and that is very true. 

Maybe you have heard of people winning the lottery but a couple of years later they are just as miserable as before or worse off!  The thing they were sure would make them the most happy in the world didn't!

Joy comes from God and is not dependant on circumstances.

Some keys to joy are:

Patience.  Seriously things can grow slowly,  progress slowly and not everything happens overnight.  Skills require practice.  Great things are not built in a day! 

Gratitude.  Things might not be perfect.  But if we are thanking God for all our blessings our list is probably long.  If you actually sit and write down everything we have to be grateful for it is actually mind boggling!

Hope.  Miracles happen. Change happens.  Prayer works.  We need hope.

Faith.  There is more than we can see.  More to the situation than we know.  God cares more than you realise.

Truth.  It is very easy to get caught up in lies/news/trends and social media.  A lie that everyone believes is still a lie.   But happiness is not found in lies and deception...  having our feet firmly planted on the rock of truth gives us a lot of strength.  Confusion and lac of conviction make us really very vulnerable.

Plans.  Plans go in with hope.  We need a dream and a plan.  Things to work toward! 

All the fancy things that are meant to bring joy disappoint and the simple things of living a quiet life and working with your hands bring peace and contentment. 

Working with your hands is mentioned so often in Scripture and I truly believe busy hands really do mean happy hearts.  To concentrate on something beautiful and be caught up in handiwork of some kind really is very soothing and satisfying.   It is hard to dwell on bad things while working on something lovely.   There is a rhythm and it is calming.  

In older posts I have mentioned Nanas friends... Mrs Mann who was always happy and knitting for all the babies born within a hundred mile radius... yet she was an amputee in a wheel chair.  And Mrs Smith who walked with crutches all her life since polio when she was young.  She also was such a happy and generous person. She sewed for everyone Mrs Mann knitted for!   They never complained.  Nope they were absolutely wonderful. 

I have spoken lots of times before about failing to find joy in many things that were meant to be great fun.  I tried lol but at the end of the day I was just so glad to get home!  Now I know joy is in the paddock with the cows and having a simple day.  Today it was in a cup of tea with Mum and baskets of kindling next to my fire.  Baskets of pinecones and sticks are beautiful.  The paddocks are soaked from rain!  Sparkie is quietly snoring.  I added to my ready meals freezer.   I had good friends to chat with and the sun shone all day.  My bed is so comfy. 

Before I go to sleep I will list at least ten things to thank God for today.  Sometimes I have fallen asleep before I get to number ten and sometimes I'm still going at twenty. 

This is like going to a fancy restaurant only to realise the mashed potatoes the next night were better. haha 

This is all not to say I never have bad days or suffer.  Goodness no.   But overall I feel peace and joy and I am so thankful.  I hope that my Grandkids remember me as funny and joyful and they understand that I had the joy that defies understanding like Nana did.  

Every day there are ways to add some goodness.  It doesn't have to be fancy at all.  There is so much beauty in the every day.  I am done with looking in all the wrong places.  

Have you ever lost something and you keep searching only to look again in places you already know the item is not? haha I do this. I will just look there again... in case I missed it the last two times. 🙄   Sadly this applies to a necklace currently!  But in the same way happiness is not at the mall nor any of the places it never was before!  It is in the stock you have simmering,   the bowl of lemons,  the eggs as you collect them and small acts of kindness.xxx