The Best Advice I Ever Got

As a 19 year-old trying to decide what to do with my life I’ve received lots of advice. So many people have told me their stories of what to do and what not to do. So I thought I would share with you the best piece of advice I have ever heard. Guess who told me? My mom! Yep, who knew moms were so full of wisdom!?

Anyways, here it is; Choose Joy. That’s it. It really is that simple. I didn’t believe it at first either. How do you choose joy even when you feel like there is nothing to be joyful about? That’s the whole point. My mom didn’t tell me to “be joyful” she told me to “choose joy”. It’s a conscious decision. When life is rough and nothing seems to go quite right you can choose to be joyful anyways.

So doesn’t that mean you’re faking it? During my time at a discipleship training school in 2016, we spent a week learning about relationships. One phrase they taught us was, “sometimes you need to act your way into a feeling.” This hit home with me. Do we always feel like being a good friend? Do we always feel like working hard? Do we always feel like showing love towards others? No! Who does? However that doesn’t give us an excuse not to. It isn’t wrong or fake to do those things even if you aren’t truly feeling that way at the time.

Basically what I’m saying is the next time a thought creeps into your head like “do I really have to do that” or “this sucks” remember that in even the toughest situations there is always a choice. A decision to choose joy.