having joy in the now

Meagan did a great devotional at our Sept 13th meeting & was kind enough to share her notes with me, which I will now share with you :) I really loved what she said about having "joy in the now"...

Wise words from Meagan: 
I was reading a mommy blog the other day and the woman made a list of all the things she does and asked her husband to order them according to what was most important to him. She listed things like cooking dinner, having a clean house, getting dressed and looking nice, etc. Her husband responded by saying, “All these things are great, but all I want is for you to have enough energy at the end of the day to be nice to me.” (Click here for entire post.)

Ouch!

How often am I so exhausted by the time my husband comes home that I just want him to take the kids and give me a few minutes to breath. Or how often do I list off the difficult things I had to deal with during the day….”so and so had a tantrum at target, then this one peed in her pants, then…” All he wants is for me to be NICE to him.

If I’m going to be nice to him, I need to change my perspective. I need to have faith and joy. But how?

James 1:2-3 says,

Consider it pure JOY my brothers whenever you face trials of many kinds because you know that the testing of your FAITH develops perseverance.

So I’m trying to do my best to not focus on all the little things going on in my house, but put my focus on Jesus. All the things that distract me are temporary. One day my kids will be grown and there will be no more potty training, temper tantrums, and cheerios all over the floor. It’s not easy but I’m trying to have joy in the now. Joy in these tiring preschool years. Joy that I can only get from faith in God.

Let the hearts of those who seek the Lord rejoice. Look to the Lord and his strength, seek his face always. ~Psalm 10-5:3-4