Choosing Joy

This weekend was one of those times where everything went wrong. EVERYTHING!

Luke left to go hunting for the weekend immediately after we got back from Vegas. My go-to set of keys and my spare were misplaced while I was in Vegas so we were stuck at home on Saturday. In the early evening Bailey got a stomach bug and threw up every 40 minutes until 4:30 a.m. On Sunday, I needed to be at the church at 8 a.m. to set -up the nursery and then serve, so Franny volunteered to watch Bailey. Thankfully I remembered that I have a valet key and found my go-to set of keys locked in the car. Only problem was that there was a race going on and I had a really hard time finding a way to get Bailey to Franny's house (4 streets that I tried were closed). Arrived at church 30 minuted late without the blankets I took home to wash the previous Sunday. No coffee in my system and going on 2 hours of sleep. I was a bit flustered and tired.

So, I am serving with my good friend Noelle and a new gal. New gal has 4 kids and I ask her how she does it because she looked completely put together and was calm & relaxed. New gal reminded me of someone we mutually know that would love to have one of my less than perfect days, but can't due to medical reasons. She reminded me to lift up my eyes out of my situation and it could always be worse. She also told me to just choose joy. Well said new gal, well said. That was exactly what I needed to hear and I think that's going to be my motto in 2013- Choose Joy.

So, I wake up at 12:30 a.m. on Sunday dreaming that Blake has gotten the stomach bug only to realize that it's really me and that at any moment I am going to throw up. So, after being sick till 7:30, which is exactly when the kids got up I got to practice my new motto and let's just say that I need a little practice as having to take care of three kids while being sick is something I dread. I mean who gets this many stomach bugs. Are we on number 7 or 8 in the last 11 months??? Thankfully, Luke was home Monday evening and took over while I got out of the house for a couple of hours and I got an amazing night of sleep.

It's going to be easy to choose joy in the easy times, but when it gets rough will you help remind me to choose joy.

I've got joy down in my heart,

Deep, deep down in my heart.
    
(Spell it!) J-O-Y down in my heart,

Deep deep down in my heart.

Jesus put it there.

And nothing can destroy it, destroy it, destroy it!

 I've got joy down in my heart,

 Deep, deep down in my heart.

Anybody remember this song?