What doesn't kill you....

"will just make you stronger..."

I can't even begin to count the number of times I have heard my Mom tell me this; even worse I can't count the number of times I've used it on my kids!  However the other day, I was talking to my Dad about a certain situation that has been a thorn in the side of our family for several years I caught myself using it on him.  Then I really thought about it perhaps the real saying ought to be:

"What doesn't kill you instantly will add up over time and kill you eventually..."

But that doesn't sound nearly as nice.  I'm the first to admit that I have been crazy blessed all my life but being crazy blessed doesn't make me immune to the little things that cause stress and all that stress can add up to ill health.  Now I'm not just talking about the biggies like heart attacks, high blood pressure and strokes...I'm talking about mental health.  The kind that causes you to think about and obsess about things that are out of your hands.  We've all had something in our life that happened wa-a-a-ay back when someone wronged you or made you mad and even today when you think about it your blood boils.  It's just not healthy to let someone or some situation have that kind of control and power over your life.

Today, I'm going to share with you a little morsel I heard over the weekend.  I was driving along, listening to KLRC when the guy on the radio did one of those minute mini-sermons between songs.  After he finished, I had to pull over and grab a pencil as I scribbled on a copy of the NWACC newspaper:

"Joy doesn't equal happiness. Happiness is just an emotion whereas joy is a state of being. Knowing God and having faith. In all things let us have joy"

So maybe...just maybe the phrase my Mama has used on me all these years is right if I will just remember to let my life be filled with joy and not sweat the other stuff!  So today, tomorrow, next week or next year when you start to feel your blood boil over you-know-who and what they did way back when...just take a deep breath and remember you are indeed always crazy blessed and living a life filled with joy is possible no matter what your circumstances!  Stop allowing something that is in the past to rob you of your joy TODAY!