Who Licked The Red Off Your Candy?

⁹ This is my prayer for you: that your love will grow more and more; that you will have knowledge and understanding with your love; ¹⁰ that you will see the difference between good and bad and will choose the good; that you will be pure and without wrong for the coming of Christ; ¹¹ that you will be filled with the good things produced in your life by Christ to bring glory and praise to God.
Philippians 1:9-11

I've mentioned before that I like people watching, especially if there's coffee involved.  I've also mentioned before that somewhere along our journey on this big blue marble, we seem to have lost the love of laughter.  Our sense of humor seems to have dried up or become so dark that it's unrecognizable. Why is that?

I love it when my pastors have "Children's Church" moment during the service when all the children come to the front to hear a lesson.  They aren't afraid to laugh!  They aren't afraid to be happy!  They are most certainly not afraid to be expressive.  So when did we learn to be so afraid? Or when did we CHOOSE to become unhappy, tense, frustrated, stressed, anxious, or just stuck in a place of sorrow?

I've been re-reading Chuck Swindoll's Book "Laugh Again" in which he teaches that laughter is an expression of JOY!  

In fact, he points out that "We begin to laugh again when we rest out full confidence in God: That full confidence brings joy when we fix our attention on the things for which we are thankful; when we let God be God."

"It doesn't matter, really, how great the pressure is; it only matters where the pressure lies. See that it never comes BETWEEN you and God because then the greater the pressure the more it will press you into the loving arms of your Father" - Hudson Taylor

You see, happiness and joy are choices!  The single most important choice we can make, as Christians, is our attitude!  Only YOU can decide YOUR attitude!

"Firm confidence in God means that it is in His hands. He who started something will bear the pressure of it and will bring the results exactly as He planned for His greater glory." - Chuck Swindoll.

You see, when we truly stop and think about it, God has a plan for each of us (yes, I've said this over and over) and it is NOT OUR JOB to get us there!  Our job is to focus on God and accept that it is HIS job to get us to the fulfillment of His plan for us!  WE tend to get in the way when we lose our joy and stop being thankful and grateful for all He has done, is doing, and will be doing in our lives!