Optimism or Irritating?

I have debated over writing a blog for several years. I hope, in the course of time my children were at home, I gave them all the knowledge I had. But sometimes things are forgotten, and I find myself even wiser now than before. So, this blog is for them. A place where experience and Godly wisdom are dispensed with love. I hope that it serves others as much as them.

Now, as my children will readily acknowledge, the most annoying trait of my personality is my ability to see the bright side of a situation and the best of people. I am not a “glass is half-full” kind of girl. My optimism leans more toward “Oh my gosh! The glass is overflowing and there is no way to stop it!!” I realize that can be greatly tedious, especially to someone who is, at the moment, finding enjoyment in their misery. I have learned to try and check my tongue until the right moment. I can’t say I always get it right, but I do TRY.

Every personality trait we are given can be squandered or abused. However, they can also be honed into God glorifying attributes. As a child, I definitely abused mine. With this outlook in life comes patience, but it also breeds complacency and procrastination. I was the worst procrastinator and pretty much felt that all would work out somehow. Generally it did. It didn’t help that life was easy enough for me to skate through, and that I was smart enough to manipulate situations to my liking! Adulthood helped; bills have to be paid on time and schedules have to be kept. Marriage and parenting helped; it was not difficult for me to put my husband and children first. I learned to put boundaries around my deficiencies.

Knowing Jesus made more difference than it is possible for me to know. He has mercifully given me some formidable burdens since the ease of my childhood. He has disciplined “most” of the complacency and procrastination from my life. I still sometimes want to live my life eating cookies and watching Netflix, but he always reminds me that it would not be as fulfilling as I expect. And He is much wiser than I am. The more I know God, the less complacent I am. However, interestingly enough, the more I then know that the glass really is overflowing. So rather than living in my own world, as I did as a child, hoping that things will work out, I am able to engage in the world with assurance that things will work out.

My hope for this blog is that it is a place that my writings on joy, hence “joyography”. It will not always be a blog about nice things, wrapped up in pretty little bows. That is not joy. Of course the good things in life, properly placed, bring joy, but so does everything else. Pain is inextricably mixed up in joy. It is one of the reasons pain exists. That is what I hope the heart of this blog will be. I fully intend to make the case that things are ALWAYS better than you think. Stay tuned, let’s turn your half full glass into an overflowing spring!