One more time for this post--


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I used to wait to be happy. I was waiting until--


The nightly news stopped showing tragedies.
The world felt like a better, kinder place.
My daughter was home safe upstairs and not out driving.
My husband was in a great mood.
My house was clean from attic to basement.
Everybody at church liked me.
We had lots of thin green dollars in the bank.
I felt 100% healthy.
The sun was shining and warm.
And I (and the people in my life) did everything right.

Then one day it hit me--I was postponing happiness!
Waiting for all my ducks to be in a row, when those ducks would forever be spread out upon the pond,never, ever in a straight line.

So I began giving myself permission to be happy in the middle of an imperfect afternoon(!) Happiness was for right now because right now God is good--even when I'm not.

He provides joy, even now, in the midst of turbulent times. And He gives me permission, too, to be happy.

And that has made all the difference.



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"...to give to them beauty for ashes, the oil of joy for mourning, the garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness; that they might be called trees of righteousness, the planting of the Lord, that he might be glorified..." ...Isaiah 61:3
"These things I have spoken unto you, that in me you might have peace. In the world you will have tribulation: but be of good cheer; I have overcome the world." ... John 16:33