Choices

The other day I read an interview with Michael J. Fox in a recent issue of Good Housekeeping Magazine. He shared a lot of his heart and journey regarding his struggle with Parkinson's. He was asked what advice he'd give someone who's dealing with a chronic illness. His advice though, I think can apply to any trying season of life:

I would say to look at the choices you have, as opposed to the choices that have been taken away from you. Because in those choices, there are whole worlds of strength and new ways to look at things.

That just resonated so deeply with me, especially during this season of part-time income for our family. I think a lot of times, we look at difficult things that happen with a sense of loss and perhaps even that some choice has been taken away from us, even if that "choice" was misguided. So, here I am, focusing on the choices I *do* have:

• what to make for dinner each night
• which possessions I'm going to sell next
• to stay-home full-time
• to homeschool
• to continue striving towards being a wife of excellence
• to continue to tithe
• to work wholeheartedly to care for the home He has entrusted me with
  
• to give generously as we can, of what resources we have
• to love my children, train them as He sees fit & have fun with them daily
• to choose my attitude

I choose to live with joy, knowing that although I may be poor by some standards, I have an abundance of riches that money can't buy. I am, in a way, more content than I have been in a long time. I feel His hand over my life in such a real and tangible way. Someone in small group the other evening said that we need to go to work and be responsible because "Christ doesn't pay our bills". I nearly burst out laughing! REALLY?! So since we only make $800/month and our bills are a little over $2000 and they are all current, how would you explain that?! I knew the point this guy was getting at, it's just that....it all comes from Him, whether it's in the form of a paycheck, an unemployment check or a check in the mail. That's what I come away from this season with. He blesses us with work, He blesses us with unemployment, He provides for our needs when neither of those apply. And it's because of Him, that I choose joy.