Good Tidings of Great Joy

It's supposed to be the most wonderful time of the year, but for many, the holidays can be in a word - tough. Rushing here and there, to and fro, buying and returning, smiling, smiling, smiling all day long for relatives you've met before but don't really "know." But that's not even as bad as the many others...who have no family, nowhere to go, nobody to see. Yes, the holidays can really be tough.
I had a wonderful holiday season. There's nothing I love more than spending time with my family and this year, with my new husband. And this year for New Years, he and I shared my very first New Years kiss - the first time in my life that I had ever smooched anybody as that crystal ball fell at midnight.
Yet even with so many happy things happening around me, I had to watch myself to avoid getting sucked into the holiday funk.
I find it very telling that the devil would attack the very emotion Christ's birth is supposed to bring. The angels sang of good tidings of great JOY!!!!! Yet joy is the very target of Satan's schemes over the holidays. If we could all just learn how to be JOYFUL all year long, we would have major ammunition to use against him this time of year.
It all starts with thankfulness. So today, I hope you'll stop and thank God for the things you have, even if you don't like them. Thank him for your monotonous job, your screaming kids, your trials and tests, your demanding spouse, and for the opportunity to respond to all of these things in righteousness that he provided through His Son.
Thankfulness will lead to joy, and joy is infectious.