10 Reasons I Love My Life

I believe CS Lewis coined the phrase “surprised by joy.”  I love that.  Have you ever been surprised by joy?  I mean, have you ever been caught off guard realizing that your heart has changed and the things which bothered or grieved you before have actually been a source of happiness or at least that your sorrow has been replaced with joy much to your own surprise? 

So many feelings are actually decisions first.  Love is certainly a feeling, but it is first a decision.  Respect is a feeling, but it is first a decision.  Though I love and respsect my husband, often I love and respect him as a decision first, then my feelings follow.  If I choose to not love and respect him, my feelings will dwindle soon thereafter.  But when I choose to love and respect him by my thoughts, words, and actions, my emotions and feelings usually trail along not too far behind.  The same is true of thankfulness and contentment.  At times, I feel thankful and content, and often I don’t.  But the amount of time that I feel thankfulness and contentment is directly proportionate to the amount of time I spent deciding to be those things.  This deciding includes praying for these qualities, taking negative thoughts captive and replacing them with thankful ones, and choosing to look and dwell on the things that I have and love. 

Several recently things have got me thinking along this vein.  The first is obvious: we just celebrate Thanksgiving.  It is unfortunate so it is so often referred to as Turkey Day because the giving of thanks is so much ore worthy of celebration than some oversized bird.  At any rate–I began to think of how thankful I was.  Secondly, my friend Caila (check out her blog on my blogroll) wrote a post about perspective, and how we need the right perspective in order to be thankful.  Third, I was marveling to Jeff on Saturday because I told him that I was thoroughly and honestly loving living here with my parents.  I was, as I said, surprised by joy.  Lastly, my brother shared a message at his church about humility, and so I’ve been pondering that characteristic and exploring facets of it in my mind.  Thankfulness the trademark of humility.  Thankfulness and pride cannot co-exist.  I suppose you could say, “Wow–I am so thankful to myself for being such a wonderful person!” but that seems a little absurd.  When we are thankful and contnent, we are recognizing that we have more than we deserve and all that we need.  Pride is the voice that says we don’t have enough or don’t have what we want.  Humility manifests itself in a thankful heart, and a thankful heart manifests itself through joy. 

So, I have to say, I am surprised by joy.  I am so thankful for my life.  In fact, I want to share with you 10 reasons why I love my life. I could go on forever, but you’d probably get bored.  Perhaps you should write your own list on why you love your life.

1. I have been set free from the power of sin and death and am right with my Heavenly Father, who loves me!

2. I will spend forever with Him in eternal glory in Heaven.

3. I have a husband who loves God and adores me, who is funny, hard-working, intelligent, humble, respectful, and honest.

4. We get to look outside at God’s glorious creation and can’t even see another house–only forest, river, and wildlife.

5. I have a healthy body and am able to walk, run, exericse, and play with Dutch.

6. I have the most beautiful, funny, hilarious, curious little boy who I absolutely adore.

7. We have all that we need in life–clothes, a beautiful home here with my parents, food in the fridge, a car to drive.

8. I live in Oregon, the most beautiful place in the world. 

9. I have the privilege of going to seminary, a rare and amazing experience.

10. I have both my parents and they are still happily married to each other.

Oh. . . and I have this really fun blog and some people actually read it! 🙂