In the pursuit of Happiness.

"Choose Joy"

"Be Present"

"Be Happy"

Such small phrases packing a large punch.

  It's so easy to get wrapped up in the hustle and bustle of our lives or be looking forward to the next something coming up around the corner, but seldom do I really just sit back and embrace the goings on around me and choose happiness in it all.  It's usually, "I'll be happy when..." or, "I can't wait until...."  Being a person of high anxiety and always wondering whats around the corner (good or bad) deters my happiness and squashes my ability to to just BE happy. 

Not to mention the happenings of daily life and the messes that occur, chaos that ensues or just sheer frustration that boils up can cause a lot of UNhappiness and  it is in those moments that I am most tested in choosing joy.  Will I react or will I respond?  Will I act in a way that I will regret later or will I choose in that very moment--knowing how fleeting time is---to choose joy.  

Little eyes and ears are taking note after all.

Surely, we get mad and frustrated and depressed and sad, and sure those emotions have their purpose for a short time, but just as sure as those emotions can entangle themselves in our lives, we can choose to forgo our pursuit of happiness and just BE happy!

And then, well, we're human gosh darn it and sometimes there are those days where it is just darn near impossible and you know that "joy" is not happening.  Then you ask for help.

"Help me Jesus"

Because in the end, (and there is an end) it comes down to you and Him.  And how sad would it be if I meet Him face to face and we both recollect that I never asked Him for help.

  That I never gave up my burdens to him. 

 That I never even gave him the opportunity. 

That I never even asked.

How sad.

Instead I hope to choose to choose joy more often--because it IS a choice and will ask for help--because I am often incapable and need a lot of it and well, its so much easier when someone else can do it for you anyways, right?!