Happiness Isn't Joy
Hi All,
So the title for the post might be confusing to some, but let me explain the reason I believe they are two different things. Happiness is based on your circumstances and your relationships with other people, while joy, true joy, isn't. Happiness changes from moment to moment based on your reactions to what goes on around you while joy overflows from your soul and pours into how you live your life. I've known the difference of these two for awhile now, but in the past weeks that I've been trying hard to love myself, I'm relearning this time and time again.
1 Peter 1: 8-9 "Though you have not seen Him, you love Him and even though you do not see Him now, you believe in Him and are filled with an expressible and glorious joy, for you are recieving the goal of your fatih, the salvation of your souls."
John 16:22 "So with you; Now is your time of grief, but I will see you again and you will rejoice and no one will take away your joy."
James 1:2-3 "Consider it pure joy, my brothers, whevenever you face trials of many kinds, because you know that the testing of your faith develops persevarnce."
I'm not always a happy person, but I do know what it feels like to always be filled with joy and peace becasuse Jesus Christ, it is beyond AMAZING and I praise God for this precious gift! Positive thinking and forced optimism, can only get you so far, and I encourage all of you to seek Jehovah in your weakness, and allow Him to overflow your heart with His JOY! One of the best feelings is to be both happy and joyful and I'm working hard to get back to the place where I'm outwardly happy and not just inwardly joyful.
So the title for the post might be confusing to some, but let me explain the reason I believe they are two different things. Happiness is based on your circumstances and your relationships with other people, while joy, true joy, isn't. Happiness changes from moment to moment based on your reactions to what goes on around you while joy overflows from your soul and pours into how you live your life. I've known the difference of these two for awhile now, but in the past weeks that I've been trying hard to love myself, I'm relearning this time and time again.
1 Peter 1: 8-9 "Though you have not seen Him, you love Him and even though you do not see Him now, you believe in Him and are filled with an expressible and glorious joy, for you are recieving the goal of your fatih, the salvation of your souls."
John 16:22 "So with you; Now is your time of grief, but I will see you again and you will rejoice and no one will take away your joy."
James 1:2-3 "Consider it pure joy, my brothers, whevenever you face trials of many kinds, because you know that the testing of your faith develops persevarnce."
I'm not always a happy person, but I do know what it feels like to always be filled with joy and peace becasuse Jesus Christ, it is beyond AMAZING and I praise God for this precious gift! Positive thinking and forced optimism, can only get you so far, and I encourage all of you to seek Jehovah in your weakness, and allow Him to overflow your heart with His JOY! One of the best feelings is to be both happy and joyful and I'm working hard to get back to the place where I'm outwardly happy and not just inwardly joyful.
Matthew 15:18 "But the things that proceed out the mouth come from the heart, and those defile the man." No matter what you try to tell yourself, whatever comes out of your mouth comes from somewhere in your heart, no matter if you speak things in anger "you don't mean" or not. It's tough sometimes, to accept the darkest parts of ourselves, but we need to learn to own the darkness and the light and choose to try and change areas of ourselves and not just hide it away and hope it stays burried. I'm by, all means, not a perfect person, but generally I'm a nice person...sometimes too nice, which I'm working on, but there are still things that I say and think sometimes that surprise me in a bad way. I'm a wicked sarcastic and sassy person and, although, I see no problem with sarcasm and sassyness it can be an issue when people take me seriously and think I'm geninuely being rude (I mean sometimes I am, but you know what I mean).
Learning to love myself is becoming a lot easier said than done, especially this past week. I've been slacking in conciously making an effort to accept myself and to be happy and I think this is partly because I, subcounciously, thought that my decision to love myself would just make it happen, automatically, with no work on my part, whatsoever...which isn't the case. Learning to live in JOY, PEACE, and LOVE isn't just something you can just decide to do, flip on the light switch, and expect it to just work itself all out, you have to WORK on it constantly until it becomes a habit! This goes for anything in life, and I'm slowly relearning this, and thank GOD I'm not in this alone!
I think part of my issue, personally, is because I'm still learning to not let people walk all over me and when I do, I kick myself too much and back track in my mission to love myself. I know, breaking my habits will take time, but still, it's hard sometimes. I know, with God I can get over myself and become more like Him each and every day and for that I'm SOOOO thankful!
I hope that you don't find this post too much all over the place, and that you know what it is like to live with both happiness and JOY!
Until Next Time!
<3Abi
Learning to love myself is becoming a lot easier said than done, especially this past week. I've been slacking in conciously making an effort to accept myself and to be happy and I think this is partly because I, subcounciously, thought that my decision to love myself would just make it happen, automatically, with no work on my part, whatsoever...which isn't the case. Learning to live in JOY, PEACE, and LOVE isn't just something you can just decide to do, flip on the light switch, and expect it to just work itself all out, you have to WORK on it constantly until it becomes a habit! This goes for anything in life, and I'm slowly relearning this, and thank GOD I'm not in this alone!
I think part of my issue, personally, is because I'm still learning to not let people walk all over me and when I do, I kick myself too much and back track in my mission to love myself. I know, breaking my habits will take time, but still, it's hard sometimes. I know, with God I can get over myself and become more like Him each and every day and for that I'm SOOOO thankful!
I hope that you don't find this post too much all over the place, and that you know what it is like to live with both happiness and JOY!
Until Next Time!
<3Abi
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