I believe Joy is a choice and not a response. I believe it is a decision and not an emotion. I believe joy is not a result of circumstances, rather it is a choice.

So the question is, how do I find joy with all that is going on with my life?

I am going to try to explain something that is very hard to explain. Boldness, confidence, self-esteem, and yes even joy can be jump started by a physical action. I was with a friend one time in Kentucky who is a lawyer. He was from Florida and we were meeting on a hotel deal in Louisville. Before he left Florida he had gotten a prescription from his doctor that he needed filled. I was driving and he said he wanted to go by the CVS to get his prescription filled. I proceeded to tell him that he would have to drop it off and then come back later to pick it up. He told me, it is all about how confident you are when you ask for it to be filled while you wait. So here we go into the CVS and I watched him boldly and nicely ask for it to be filled while we wait. !0 minutes later it was filled and we were back in the car heading for dinner.

I have thought about that many times since that day and while it is not true every time, you can usually carry a different tenor into a conversation if you simply act like it. It is hard to explain but I do know that if you start a conversation with boldness it usually sets a positive tenor for the meeting or conversation. I also know that if you start looking down and acting like you are unsure about what you are talking about, it usually sets the negative tenor for the meeting.

So back to joy. I believe if you act joyful your emotions will usually follow your physical actions. Sounds deep right? The term Boldness is referred to in the New Testament 42 times and I believe it is there for a reason. Many times, your boldness, confidence, self-esteem and yes even joy, takes it cue from how you physically act. So before you make a phone call, set an appointment or even start a day, decide that you are going to be bold about it and I believe you will see what I mean by setting the tenor of a situation. KT