Nancie Chose Joy

Dr. Dobson said if he were 22 and looking for a wife, knowing what he knows now, the number one thing he would look for would be someone who is a happy person. Who wants to come home every night to someone who is generally unhappy?

Nancie Carmichael said, "After being away for a speaking engagement, I stopped to buy gifts for the family before returning home. I found a gift for my daughter and wanted something for my husband, too-just a reminder that I'd missed him. Then I had an idea: I'll bring him me--happy! Novel thought, for sure. True to my analytical nature, I can be melancholy. Bill loves it when I'm happy. As I stood in the gift shop poised over the card rack, I wondered, Is it possible to choose and give happiness just as I choose a gift for someone?"

Nancie went home and found plumbing problems, company because of a family wedding, her daughter searching for her contact lenses.
Later that week her husband said, "You have been so sweet lately."
"I have?" Nancie asked, surprised. And it occurred to her that she really was happy. But it was a consequence, not a pursuit. She was learning to say like Mary, "I am the Lord's servant, and I am willing to accept whatever he wants" (Luke 1:38).

Living with a willingness to accept all that comes to us as though it is from God is our way to both give and receive joy.

Dear Father, I willingly receive whatever You allow to come to me. As I do, I trust You to help me reflect Your joy.

"Mary responded, 'I am the Lord's servant, and I am willing to accept whatever he wants'" (Luke 1:38 NLT).