Are you happy? Are you fulfilled? Are you content? I believe you should be. Why? Because you are alive to see this beautiful day. We don't have to lead extraordinary lives in order to be happy. We don't have to have the best of possessions to feel fulfilled. We don't need to have our every need met in order to be content. Being alive this day to enjoy our time with our family and friends, to relish the beauty that our eyes behold and the sounds that our ears can hear should remind us that we are a blessed. We have more than we often realize because we allow the temporary trial or setback to make us forget our great bounty of blessings. Instead of focusing on the temporary bad, we should make our minds up to be both thankful and grateful for our great abundance that greatly overshadows any of the negatives that we may be facing. (Hebrews 13:5) (1 Timothy 6:6-9)

If you are finding yourself stuck in a rut of stagnation and you don't see yourself looking forward to tomorrow, I would challenge you to become introspective and think on how blessed you truly are. Can't think of anything? You can be thankful for your spouse, children, family and friends. You can be thankful for your job, your home, your car. You can be thankful for your health, your eyesight, your hearing, your beating heart that never takes a break. We have so much to be appreciative for and sometimes we just need a little reminder that our life is much better than we sometimes think it is. (Psalm 105:1) (Revelation 11:17)

Let us always remember how blessed our life really is so that our joy will never cease, our happiness will never wane and our peace will never be lost to us again. I firmly believe that a grateful heart will be a happy, fulfilled and contented heart. I pray that you will be grateful today for all that you have and see that your life doesn't need anything to be added to it in order to appreciate it. (Acts 2:28)

I hope this message inspires and challenges your heart to see that your life is extraordinary just as it is right now.


HAPPILY EVER AFTER

I have a dusty old box full of books stashed in the corner of my bedroom. It has all the children’s stories that I used to read to my kids when they were still young. I am patiently waiting for the day when I can open it again. I am waiting for the special moments when I will have grandchildren on my lap, a book in my hands, and a story on my lips once again.

There are a few books, however, that I won’t be reading to them. These are the books that I gave away a long time ago. They are the ones ending in, “And they lived happily ever after.” You see, I spent far too many of my own years waiting for that magical "happily ever after" that never came. It took me a long time to realize that some problem free future doesn’t exist. Each solved problem is soon replaced by another and then another. Life is full of challenges, growth, pain, and learning. There is no escape from it. There is no perfect “happily ever after” waiting over the next horizon.

Happiness isn’t some reward we finally get either. It is rather a choice we make day by day and moment by moment. Happiness is created by loving each other through all the challenges, growth, problems, and pain. Happiness comes from giving of yourself, helping others, and loving God. It comes from being the person your Heavenly Father meant for you to be. That is the truth I want my future grandchildren to know someday. 

We need to teach the children that Cinderella’s problems and challenges didn’t end the moment she tried on that glass slipper. We need to teach them that the true adventure in life isn’t in living “happily ever after” but in loving each other no matter what may come our way. Only then will brief moments of happiness be replaced by lasting days of joy. Only then will a problem free tomorrow be replaced by a well-lived today. 

By Joseph J. Mazzella


Read and meditate on these scriptures:

Hebrews 12:2-3 “Looking unto Jesus the author and finisher of our faith; who for the Joy that was set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is set down at the Right Hand of the throne of God. For consider Him that endured such contradiction of sinners against Himself, lest ye be wearied and faint in your minds.”

Psalm 25:1-5 “Unto Thee, O Lord, do I lift up my soul. O my God, I trust in Thee: let me not be ashamed, let not mine enemies triumph over me. Yea, let none that wait on Thee be ashamed: let them be ashamed which transgress without cause. Shew me Thy ways, O Lord; teach me Thy paths. Lead me in Thy truth, and teach me: for Thou art the God of my salvation; on Thee do I wait all the day.”

Isaiah 45:2-3 “I will go before thee, and make the crooked places straight: I will break in pieces the gates of brass, and cut in sunder the bars of iron: And I will give thee the treasures of darkness, and hidden riches of secret places, that thou mayest know that I, the Lord, which call thee by thy name, am the God of Israel.”

2 Timothy 1:7-9 “For God hath not given us the spirit of fear; but of power, and of love, and of a sound mind. Be not thou therefore ashamed of the testimony of our Lord, nor of me his prisoner: but be thou partaker of the afflictions of the gospel according to the power of God; Who hath saved us, and called us with an holy calling, not according to our works, but according to His own purpose and grace, which was given us in Christ Jesus before the world began.”

All of these scriptures can be found in the King James Version Bible. 


Today's Selected Poem: STRENGTH FOR THE DAY
Click here to read --- http://www.Godswork.org/enpoem167.htm

Today's Selected Testimony: FROM DRUGS TO JESUS
Click here to read --- http://www.Godswork.org/testimony122.htm


In Christ’s Service,

Dwayne Savaya
God’s Work Ministry