Joy is a choice

You can also read this here: http://www.moneysavingmom.com/money_saving_mom/2009/05/guest-post-finding-joy-in-the-journey.html

I once heard a story about two brothers who set out to dig a deep hole in their backyard. “What are you doing?” some older boys asked.

“We are digging a hole through the earth!” the brothers replied.

The older boys laughed. Digging a hole all the way through the earth was impossible.

After a few moments, one of the diggers picked up a jar full of spiders, worms, and other treasures. “Even if we don’t dig all the way through the earth, look what we found along the way!”

The moral of the story: It is in the digging that life is lived.

In our journey towards debt-free living, how many times do we say, “I’ll be happy when I’m debt-free?” “I’ll be happy when the emergency fund is fully-funded.” or “I’ll be happy when the mortgage is paid off.”

We’re distracted by crisis. We all face frustration, boredom, pain. But joy is a choice.

By recognizing the positives in my life, I feel joy. Celebrating the everyday blessings is a deliberate action. It’s a purposeful mindset which transforms my life.

Blessings are all around us; they are just waiting to be noticed. We can choose to dwell on the difficulties or we can look for the joy.

I still have problems. I still have inconveniences and discomforts. However, I am allowing them to be less important, less significant by choosing to acknowledge the wonderful things in my life. I am practicing praise and attempting to do away with complaining.

There is joy in the journey.

I really loved that. Especially lately I've been having a very hard time with pain in this pregnancy, it was a nice reminder to keep focusing on what's going right. Yes, it hurts to walk, and doing things like going up stairs or getting dressed requires slow movements, but I can still accomplish things. Like getting the dishes done... and since we don't even have a dishwasher that is an accomplishment!

Every Friday is library day, and I'm grateful that today my husband has enough time before work to take Isaac, and next week hubby has Friday off and he can take Isaac again since it hurts for me to move around.

Every weekend I make a to-do list of things I need to get done. This weekend it's rather large. I'm grateful that I can take Friday and Saturday (and Sunday if I have to) to get it all done, even though these are things I used to be able to accomplish in a single day. I'm grateful that my husband cleaned the shower/tub for me, and it's even more special because I didn't even have to ask. He just saw it on my list and did it!

I can find joy by accomplishing the things I need to do, and so what if it takes me days to get it all done?