Choosing joy.

   I'm not sure where, but at some point last week I came across this phrase. Keep choosing joy. Hmmph. At the risk of sounding melodramatic, I realized as soon as I read it how much it resonated with the little routine I find myself in lately. Choosing joy. Over an over. Intentionally. C.S. Lewis said it best {doesn't he always?} when he wrote in a letter this little nugget-

   “We are not necessarily doubting that God will do the best for us; we are wondering how painful the best will turn out to be.” C.S. Lewis

  Yup. That. Right there. I fully, 100% trust what God's up to and where he's leading me {or, really, calling me stand still}. But joy still takes work. 

 I see lots of different people in different situations at my job. One family {with nine kiddos} is facing a serious, and daunting cancer diagnosis that could change their family forever. But they still choose joy. I've worked with kids who have been wounded in the deepest ways by those ones who are supposed to love them most, and they choose joy. I'm always amazed at the power choosing joy can have on a person or a situation. For me, I feel physically lighter, less consumed with myself, and much closer to Jesus. I'm interested, though- what does joy do for you? How do you choose it over and over? Does it come easy or difficult for you?