Choices - Let's Choose Love and Joy

At our age, when we sit down to the table, we have the freedom to choose what and how much we want to eat.  (We don't even have to eat okra.)  

When we wake up in the morning, we can choose what we will wear, whether to wash my face, whether I will smile at the mirror, or not.

We can choose to love other people - or not.

For myself, I choose love!  Why?  Because God chose love. 

Our time here on earth is limited and I don’t know about you, but I personally don’t think I want to waste it by using it to hate, to hurt, or to ignore. 

And we can choose joy

I have a little story for you.

As she trotted near the city park, she saw people walking about, looking down at the sidewalk.  Nobody looked happy.  Actually, nobody looked anywhere but the ground, and their lips looked like they were pulled that way too

It was a sunny day, the sky was blue and the birds were singing.  She had been given that beautiful day, and her heart was full.

She had a choice – hold on to that happiness or look down so that she wouldn’t see the unhappiness of the people she passed.

There was a third choice – give that happiness away.  So, that’s what she decided to do.  She walked up to the nearest sad soul and stood still right in front of him.  She wagged her tail, and gave a friendly little “yip.”  The man ignored her, so she ran around his legs, stood again and wagged her tail.  She was smiling, but she wasn’t sure he recognized the smile beneath her whiskers.  Finally, he looked at her.  She did her little dance around his legs again, stood, wagged, yipped, and smiled.

After a minute it seemed that the weariness lifted from his shoulders and he reached down to pat her head. 

She moved on to the next person on the street and did the same thing – the first man was watching.  She knew she had his attention, so when the second person finally  looked at her, she did her silly dance and circled them both.  They looked at each other and began to laugh and then began to talk, and then to smile.

She had done her job – and she was just a mongrel pup.  Could we possibly do the same thing?  Make people smile and look at each other, just by circling them with love?

I think so.

We can choose.  We can choose whether we fill a room with gloom, or with joy.  We can choose because the love and the joy doesn’t have to come from our circumstances, it comes from the Creator of Love, The Creator of Joy, The Creator of Life - our wonderful Father.

I hope you enjoyed my little story.  We'll speak of other choices in the next few days or weeks.

Love to you all,

Diane