Joy in the journey

It's been a while! As you can probably imagine, balancing a full-time job with graduate school in the midst of a pandemic and all that entails has taken way more time than I anticipated! LOL. 

I've been thinking about hope these last few months. It seems to be in short supply. Or is it? 

I was praying in the car the other day on my way to work and I had a thought that I wanted to share here: Just because everyone else has written off 2020 as "the worst year ever" does not mean that I have to. That doesn't mean that I am discounting other's struggles. No. Because believe me, I SEE them and I have HEARD things and it has just in general been a sucky year for a lot of people. I've had plenty of sucky moments this year. But what I came to realize, and I'm crediting God for it because yeah, is that I can choose to change the perspective of MY sucky moments. I can choose to moan and groan, or I can choose joy in the journey. 

Let me tell you, these last couple of weeks I have left of grad school, do NOT feel joyful. I want to run and hide! My dad had a stroke a few weeks ago. Those were some of the worst days of my life, and they were anything but joyful. But now? He's basically back to normal! And let's not forget that we are still in the midst of a pandemic. 

In all of this recent stuff, I have sincerely tried to ask God "What do you want me to learn from this?" "Joy in the journey" is what came to me the other day. That doesn't mean that every day is going to be awesome. Jesus didn't promise that. Jesus did, however, promise that He is always with us. That alone helps me change my perspective- He is just a whisper away. 

"What do you want me to learn from this?" Try it!