Come on, get happy!

Hello, don't you love that old Partridge Family song? You can't help sing along, "Come on, get happpppyyyyy!" Good stuff makes you smile and makes you happy, you can't help it.

Yesterday in A Good Bible Study: StressLess we talked about the real need to keep choosing good input, especially if we have more than two negative people in our daily lives.

God says to cast all our cares on Him, and I would say that also means casting those hurtful, mean, and critical influences at His feet as well. We can't change anyone, but God can change everyone.

Let Him start with you and me:

Lord, I'm choosing to give you everyone that doesn't understand how to love me. I want to make room in my heart right now, for Your Love. I can't change them, so I want You to change me instead. Make my heart glad, make me see their pain and pray for them, remembering their issues are about them and not about me. Give me joy and gladness in the midst of the storm, because I know if I can learn to be happy when everything seems to be going wrong, there is no limit to my ability to enjoy the good stuff. In the name of Jesus, amen.

Today we are moving into recuperating our spirits. We've got to fill all three tanks: body, mind and spirit. If you leave out one, you will still feel out of balance.

The easiest and quickest way to fill your spirit is to develop a sense of gratitude. Gratitude is the most powerful form of positive thinking. There was an article in Real Simple Magazine that suggested four benefits of expressing gratitude for what you have, instead of focusing on what you don't like in your life. They were

• giving you a sense of control - take credit for what's going well and you will feel more competent and able to create a better life
• improving your health - people who keep track of what they are happy about, such as in a journal, exercise more and sleep more than people who don't write down blessings
• coping better with trauma - reminding yourself of what you are grateful for makes painful memories less intense when they surface, and actually surface less often
• increasing feelings of self-worth and self-esteem - choosing to concentrate on grateful thoughts leads to feeling better about who you are and what you deserve in life

The most difficult time to feel thankful is when we are angry. Sometimes our minds get so stuck in our emotions, like a gear jammed in the transmission. No matter how hard we try to shove it in gear, it's not moving until you clear the obstruction.

We think other people and situations are the obstruction and until they change, we can't get over our anger. I'm telling you that is wrong and the when you understand this, you will be free from ever feeling angry for one second longer than you choose to.

Try it now. What have you got to lose except your grumpy attitude. Get out some paper and write down everything about your life that you can be grateful about. Start with the the basics: are you alive? Are you breathing and capable of making today better in some way than yesterday? Are your children, or siblings, or friends healthy?

Keep going, you've got it. Don't discount how powerfully this will de-stress your life just because it's simple. That's the beauty of it. Here's something to help you get your head around it: It is impossible to feel two emotions at once.

Choose thoughts that result in anger, or choose thoughts that result in gratitude. Say it out loud and your chemical response cannot help but follow. Thought creates emotion every time. It's not easy at first, but it is simple, and it does work.

Read Colossians 3:12-17 and Read Psalm 118:24
Lord, so much of what You instruct us is so simple it seems too easy to work. Help us to just take one step today to appreciate the good in our lives. Help us appreciate You. Bring to mind our list of gratitude when we are angry or hurt and help us choose to say out loud to You, "Thank you for this Lord." Amaze us with how quickly we can go from mad to glad, if we choose to do one small thing to experience gratitude. In the name of Jesus, amen.

Love, Karen

Photo by Graur Raz Vanionut, courtesy of http://www.freedigitalphotos.net/