Friday, July 25, 2014

Joy Stealer....

I don't think anyone would deny that Satan loves to try to steal our joy.  He loves nothing more than to come in and make us doubt ourselves, feel inadequate or play on our own insecurities.  He loves it best however, when he can use us to steal the joy from others.

Yesterday was a cruddy day.  There were things from DHS that at one point I had assumed we would face, and there were other things as well.  I thought a lot last night about how we react to things and how much to fight back and so forth and I realized the fight I had going on within myself was a bit different.  Sure, I could be mad and hold grudges and stomp my feet and curse DHS and so forth.  OR....I could decide not to be a vessel for Satan to use.  I could decide not to be used to be someone else's joy stealer.

Now, I am not talking about one of those people who makes a big public pronouncement that I am cleansing myself of toxic people on FB and if you made the cut congrats.  No, quite the opposite.  That's what Satan wants is opposition.  Discourse, strife, backbiting, gossiping, so forth.  So instead, I will decide what is worth fighting for and go from there.  I know with the girls, things are going to get ugly before they get better and my job is to be their advocate right now.  For me that means, standing up for what I believe is best and then trusting God to chart their path.  In other areas, it may mean standing down and not being in the middle of things.  Backing away and being heard less.  Very hard for me to do.

The truth is that Satan can only steal our joy if we allow him.  We have been blessed with some great people from the state and I know we were given our ad litem specifically because of the obstacles we would face.  We have been able to work with the other family involved and get along with no real issues and even help out along the way.  I could've allowed yesterday to skew my view, perception and I could've gotten pretty nasty with people who are used to having people yell and curse at them on a daily basis.  They probably wouldn't have even thought twice.  Instead, I am now grateful yesterday happened.  I realized that I was heading down a path of complacency.  I was so reliant on what I 'just knew' was going to happen that I hadn't sat down and given it to God in a long time.  I had also headed down a path I needed stopped with my own attitude of getting caught up in things and not handling them in a Christian manner.

Don't let Satan steal your joy, but even more than that, don't be used by Satan as a vessel to steal others.

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