Joy out the window

Wow my family would tell you it has been a hard week at our house. Due to lack of sleep and a low amount of patience I haven't been in the best of moods. In fact I have been a downright terror. Man I have sure blown it in this joy thing. It amazes me how quickly Satan can find a weakness in us and then exploit it over and over again. For some reasons joy was out the window these past few days. I was irritable and angry with the kids too many times. The smallest things would set me off. I was hollering and yelling way too much and I am certain my family had a miserable week because of my attitude.

I try to pinpoint why I feel the way I do...it has to be multiple things but mainly because I have made an agreement. That the day is not going to get better, that I am not going to experience joy today, that my kids have no clue about anything in life, that I'm just going to be in a rotten mood because that's what I feel like doing. All those things are agreements I have made. I don't have to because I can choose what I am going to do and how I will respond. I can choose how I am going to look at my day and whether or not I want joy to be a part of it. I guess if I had to pinpoint it, it all boils down to distractions. I have been distracted from God over the past week. I haven't keep up with my reading everyday, haven't been inviting him into everything as I had been concentrating on doing for the past month. I really slipped in my commitments to Him. Because of that I opened the door for Satan and he wreaked havoc.

I am praying against these choices right now...God in the name of Jesus I want you to fill my life with my commitments to you. Close the doors in my life where I have allowed Satan to creep in. God give me the strength to turn away from the agreements I have made about life and my family. Thank you for your grace and loving kindness and for your forgiveness when you have not held first place in my life. I want to seek your face, to be made whole and Holy, and ultimately live in your joy everyday of my life. God I am starting anew with you today and my quest for your joy. A-men. Even while I was praying this prayer I heard Him tell me to apologize to my family. To seek there forgiveness by acknowledging how miserable I have been to them this past week. This means sitting down with them and sharing this. It means calling Hailey and Austin in Dayton on the phone because they are at my folks house. It would be easy to skip this step and just talk to them at the end of the week (that would be another agreement) I need to call them and I am going to.

This joy thing sure is hard but I am determined in Christ to make it a regular part of my life. I do not like who I am when I am not living in God's joy and I have only myself to blame. I do know one thing. God is so good and I feel so blessed with all that he has done in my life. I am not down or discouraged but convicted to keep growing in Him.
Blessings,
Your Dreaming Pastor