Bathe Yourself in Joy

I feel the need to stress a point before I start. My blog posts and topics are not things/situations that I have mastered. Far from it actually. So far, I have picked blog topics based on what I am struggling with in that moment! So, this one is not going to be ANY different!

First off, as I have mentioned in the past, I never once thought I would start a blog. I knew that if I did, my blog would be opened to the public for all to see. I know that by making my blog public, it allows those who don’t agree with me, to be heard. I give others the chance to fire back at me when they disagree with what I write. I knew this going into blogging. Yet, Saturday I had my first taste of this. I had some one disagree with something I posted and they felt I needed to delete my post completely. The hurt I felt was unlike any I had felt before. It actually surprised me at how upset this made me. I was sad and angry. I hate, more than anything, to admit how I let this consume my entire day. I let all the negative thoughts come pouring in. “I was dumb to start blogging. I can’t believe I thought I could make a difference.” I won’t post anymore of my negative thoughts because today I am embarrassed about how much I let this person get to me! It hurt so much because I pour myself into these posts. Some of them I am pretty open and vulnerable. I put my life out there and some one thinks its only worth deleting.

In high school we had an amazing English teacher. We would walk into her class and some one out of the 15 of us would be in a bad mood. We were all raging hormonal teens after all. Our teacher would always react to our cranky behavior by saying, “No one can ruin your day but you!” and she would say it in such a chipper tone that it would ruin our day even more. I can’t tell you how many times I would sit and try to understand what she meant by that. Of coarse some one could ruin my day! Had my parents not grounded me last night, then I wouldn’t be upset this morning. Had he not broken up with me then, I wouldn’t be crying. Had she not yelled at me, then I wouldn’t want to hide in a bathroom stall right now. Yes, people can ruin your day!!! It was YEARS before this actually sank in and I finally realized what this quote really meant. I still struggle with it, but it speaks the truth. We are the ones who decide to give the other person the power to ruin our day. Just like I did Saturday. I allowed that person to get to me. I shouldn’t have even given it a second thought. I should have recalled all the positive feed back I received, all the stories that others shared about how they felt the same way, and ignored that one negative comment.

I think taking back that power is one of the hardest things we must do! It would be easier if the other person wasn’t close to us or if it some one we didn’t see all the time. I know for some that negative energy comes from a spouse, a parent, a sibling, extended family, and close friends. These situations are so much harder! Trust me, I know, but ultimately we still have to power to not let them get the best of us. I truly believe that their words and actions come from their own insecurities and issues. That means that when they fire at us, their words become INVALID!

We need to take back the power. Stop letting the enemy win! Satan uses so many of these feeling that I have been blogging about, to tear us down. Guilt, inadequacy, feeling like we don’t matter….those are not God sent feelings! When these start coming, we need to pray! Pray that God will keep Satan far away from us. Tell your self, “No! _______, you will NOT still my joy!” I woke up yesterday morning and had a great conversation with a great friend and said out loud to myself, “Today is going to be a great day and I will not focus on the negative!” Yesterday was a great day. Today is going to be awesome too!