Some of the roadblocks that make me want to feel grumpy rather than joyful are: Getting overtired, not feeling well and having a lot to do in a little time and feeling overwhelmed. All of these are preventable most of the time.
I have learned that I do better with a full night of sleep and a quick pick me up nap. I am getting better at not feeling guiltily about getting the rest I need and that has helped me to feel much more joyful. As far as being healthy (feeling well) the way that I take care of my body has a lot to do with that (thought germs still will come and I need to be ready for that with a joyful attitude). I try to care for our health by the things we eat, the activities we do and many other things.
Getting overbooked and overwhelmed is pretty much always something I unfortunately chose. I love activity, projects and getting things done and I also am quick to get to get involved with things that come up. I am slowly learning to be more careful about how much I put on my plate at once and also to be more organized with my time. This was an area I messed up on once again last week. As we were getting ready for the fair I had so many projects I wanted to do or finish up in order to enter and I let myself get stressed and rather unjoyful at times. This was not helpful for anybody. I am praying for more common sense in the future on this. It isn't that entering things is a bad idea for us, over all it is a very joyful thing but when I try to do to much at the last minute then it stops being joyful.
Those three things are some of the major roadblocks that I face in my journey to be more joyful. Since I have figured out what they are in my life, it is my responsibility to try to avoid the temptation that they can cause. When something comes up that is beyond my control then I can seek the Holy Spirit's help to be joyful in spite of the problems. What are some of the roadblocks you face? Have you thought about it so that you can try to avoid them? I suppose some people may say it is their kids being naughty or rowdy or something of that sort and obviously it won't work well to avoid their children or their spouse or anybody like that but my thought is that the problem to cause us to struggle with being joyful usually lies more within ourselves and how we react to others than actually the people themselves.
I would love to hear your thoughts on this as well! And may we all be working to live more joyful lives!
"Shout joyfully to the Lord, all the earth; Break forth and sing for joy and sing praises." Ps. 98:4
4 comments:
Oh my did I need to read this this morning! I have so much going on that I often feel grumpy and irritable - usually because I chose to do too much and get overwhelmed! I also realized that with two chronic illnesses, I probably won't be as 'energetic' as I was before they manifested themselves. That's a difficult thing to deal with.
My birthday recently occured and my birthday Bible text (from our church lectionary) was Ecclesiastes 2:1-17 and the commentary was about just this!
Now - I just need to figure out what I personally need to do to combat the grumpies! :)
Glad to know I'm not the only one!
Lea
I feel the same way. Often my joy is gone since I made a choice like stayed up too late, said yes to too many things, etc. Thank you for affirming this again in my mind that its a problem :)
Good brief and this post helped me alot in my college assignement. Thank you as your information.
Great post, Abbi! I think we can all find ourselves in that quandary a time or two. Knowing how to spend each moment of time is an important co-operation between us and the Holy Spirit, as we give our every moment to the Lord, seek for guidance and correction, and practice "praying without ceasing," (I Thess. 5:1617), praying for wisdom (James 1:3-8), and crucifying our selfish desires, submitting to His desires (Galations 2:20). The Lord keeps emphasizing this to me again and again, and even this morning, spoke into my heart these concepts. Of course, we must work out the details, but if filled with the Spirit, all things flow seamlessly. Therefore, it is this filling that really gives us the victory! (Ephesians 5:15-21) I do so appreciate your Spirit-filled observations, Abbi. As always, you are an inspiration!
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