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WHEN SOMEONE STEALS A PARKING SPACE FROM YOU, IT COULD BE GOD GIVING YOU A LESSON ON 'FEEDING' JOY

If someone bolts in front of you and steals your parking space, how do you react? Do you blow up? Or at least: a bit of frustration, anger?

We all have this occur.

But let's ask: where does it lead, even just aggravation?

The more anger, the more irritation, the more venom we allow to enter our spirits (and it is a choice), the more of a sting is left behind; it can ruin your day. Who needs that? Says Galatians 5:22: "But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness."

When someone "steals" your parking space, or cuts you off on the road, or swoops in to take that last item on special at the supermarket, don't allow them to take your peace of mind with it. It could be that God wanted you to lose that space as a test or to divert you for a moment. Have faith! Perhaps the slight delay caused you to run into someone or see something or think of something that you would not have otherwise seen or thought. A slow driver ahead of you on the road might prevent a ticket from that traffic officer who suddenly materializes!

You know the new cliche? "It's all good"? Often, it's true: we actually can make things "all good" in God when He is the One we seek to please (not others).

Don't allow the world (and those in it) to orient you, define you, and thus steal the happiness of who you really are -- the person God created to be a winner. He wants us all to win. He doesn't create losers.

We do that to ourselves.

We let the world do it to us.

We allow others.

God wants us joyful; being a loser is not in your spiritual "DNA." Says 1 Chronicles 16:27: "Splendor and majesty are before Him, strength and joy are in His place." When you get upset, or aggravated, or angry, you divert from that heritage. If things don't go perfectly, take time to find joy in the possibility that it's God moving you on a different course or away from certain people or circumstances.

Says Psalms 16:11: "You will make known to me the path of life; In Your presence is fullness of joy; In Your right hand there are pleasures forever."

Sometimes, to maintain that path, we have to limit our contacts, love certain folks at a distance. For certain, we're meant to love, but there are times when relatives, friends, co-workers, or neighbors cause us problems, want to control us, steal our joy, are in a manner of speaking "toxic."

People who are toxic are often angry, undisciplined, and negative; they make us feel guilty; they bring out the worst in us; they want us to make them happy -- fill a void in their lives, while they create disturbances in our own. They transfer negativity.

Don't let people take you into pits they have dug for themselves. If they criticize you, brush it off (unless, truly, a correction is warranted).

We're called to love and be merciful as we also seek the Mercy of God but not to the point of losing our own place in God's Plan for us -- His Plan of joy. Joy is a marker that we are living right.

God and God alone should define who and what you are. He created you to smile (which takes fewer facial muscles than a frown). With joy, we rise above rudeness, slights, disappointment. If you feed wrong feelings, wrong feelings will grow. Feed joy and joy grows. Everyday, God gives you this opportunity, usually when you least expect it. A test passed turns frustration into elation. If you've lost joy in your life you have lost part of your purpose and when you lose purpose you lose vision. You can no longer see the forest for the trees -- or better said, you can no longer see above the trees to the bright future that beckons from the horizon. 

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