Nuisance or Joy

As I look out the window at the snow falling for the first time this year, I'm thinking about how some people around here may see this snow as a disappointment. They see it as a nuisance and a pain. They see it as something to sludge through. It's interesting how something can be a beautiful, wonderful thing to one person can also seem like a nuisance, ugly mess to someone else. Today God is teaching me that disappointments are a part of life, but that we can choose to see the joy and positive side of things. 

We all have days where we expect things to go a certain way, a person is supposed to act a certain way, or we should bounce back from injury quicker than we think. When those things don't go our way, or people disappoint us, or that injury doesn't get better the way we hoped, we feel disappointed and see things in a negative way. That's me today. My day didn't go as planned. People didn't do things that I thought they should. My health is not getting better like I thought it should be getting. So here I sit thinking about the negative. As much as I want to, I cannot get over the negative thoughts. They have captured my thoughts, my feelings, and my actions. I hate it. I can hear satan laughing at me. That I hate too. 

Each day I remind myself that my God loves me even when people disappoint me, even when things don't go the way I thought they should, even when my health gets worse, even when my day just seems to be the worst day ever. I have a choice to sit and get bitter over the things that disappointed me or I can choose to find joy and look for positive things in my life. Joy is different from happiness. I'm not happy about the disappointing things in my life, but I can choose to see the joy that God has blessed me with. As a human being this is not easy and I cannot do it alone. 

I'm learning I am in dire need of God to help me with this. I cannot do this apart from him. Apart from him, I want to give up. I want to have a pity party. So, no I cannot do this alone. Just because I choose joy doesn't mean that my disappoints will go away, that my life will be perfect. I also cannot flip a switch and make myself joyful. I need God. 

Today God gave me a piece of joy. It's snowing. I love a good snow day. It always reminds me of when my girls were little and we'd go outside all bundled up and play in the snow. We'd go to the top of our small hill in the back yard and put the sled down and take turns sliding down the hill. Now the hill is not a massive hill, in fact it's pretty small in most people's mind. But for us, for me, it was the best  hill for sledding. I can still hear their laughs, their falling over in the snow making snow angels, their giggles as they throw a snowball at each other and at me, their beautiful smiles as they decide how to make our snowman this time. 

I can be sad too because my girls are not little anymore, I'm not really healthy enough to go down a hill today, and the girls are not really into our little hill for sleigh riding anymore. But you know what? I'm still going to choose to remember the joy we had and the joy we can have. I'm thankful they are home with me. I'm thankful they are safe. I'm blessed my oldest can sleep off her cold she has been suffering with. I'm thankful for hot coffee and Oreo cheesecake. I'm thankful for the foot warmer I call my dog. I find joy in sitting here watching God blanket my yard with this beautiful thing called snow!

So I pray that today whether you like snow or not take a moment to find some joy in what God has blessed you with today! And don't do it alone, pray for Gods help. His joy can overcome our disappointments. 

In Christ's love,

~Tina Foster~ 

Bible study is eye opening.

Last night I had a group of middle school girls over for our weekly life group and bible study night. We are studying the book of James. I had given them a homework assignment to read James 1:1-8 and do what is called SOAP. S stands for scripture. You read the scripture thoroughly. O stands for observation. What is God trying to say to us in this scripture? A is for application. How does God want us to apply this scripture to our lives. And P is for prayer. Asking God to help us with this application. This is a way to help them read the bible and break it down so they can understand it a little better. I was so thrilled when I realized that everyone did their assignment. Not only did they do it, but they all had some really good insight from the scripture. 

You know I'm one of the leaders of this group, but so many times I learn from these girls. It always amazes me how God speaks to them. I listen to their insights and feel the presence of God in their lives. Overall, they are moving towards God each week. 

Last night we also set up some spiritual goals for us this year. I told them that spiritual goals are goals we make that help us grow closer to God or help make us women after Gods own heart. For example, if you want to be more content with your life or you want to find more joy in all circumstances.  Then they find a verse in the bible that speaks to this and to them, because we cannot do these things alone, apart from God we are nothing. After that we make a plan to aid us in moving towards this goal. For example, we can write the scripture down and place it where we see it often reminding us that God is growing us and that we need to pray to him often about this goal or like for joy in all circumstances we can have a journal to write things we are thankful for or things that went well in our day as a reminder that not everything went wrong that day. There was some joy to be found and spending more time on that then the negative affects our attitude. 

These girls took to this like ducks to water. I was so amazed at how they jumped in for this activity. As leaders we helped guide them to verses or help make a plan, but they knew exactly what they needed to work on with God for their spiritual goal. It was so great watching them dive into their bibles looking for verses that spoke to them. 

Each day, I will be praying for these girls as they work towards their goal. I will be walking beside them to help encourage them on the days when it seems like they've failed or those days when it seems too hard. I know, because I too have a spiritual goal. My goal is so way out of who I am that I know I cannot do it without God or accountability. So I know how important it is to have those people who care about me enough to bring me back to God when I stray. 

These ladies mean the world to me and to their Father. Their spiritual walk is precious to me. Their ups and downs are shared with me. I feel the pain of their prayer requests and I pray for them often. I know them well enough to know when something is off with them. I want them always to know they have someone here on earth who's in their corner. 

Yes, these ladies inspire me to be a woman after Gods own heart. I love their hearts. I love to hear their prayer requests and the excitement in their voices when one of those prayer requests is answered. Their eyes light up, and joy spills through. 

I don't know how I got so blessed to be a part of these ladies' lives, but what an honor it is to be with them. Praise Jesus for his mercy and grace and blessings on me and these girls. 

Please take a minute with me to pray over this life group of girls. Pray for their hearts, pray for their walk, pray for their perseverance, pray for their quiet time while studying James, and pray for their movement towards their spiritual goals. Also pray for the other two leaders and myself. As James says, we have a great responsibility and are sometimes judged more harshly because we are leaders. Help us in our walk, with our hearts, for our perseverance, for our quiet time with God, and for our movement towards our spiritual goals. We must go before them. 

Praise be to God for this opportunity! 

In Christ's love,

~Tina Foster~