Joy is slippery sometimes.  It can be hard to grasp but once you have it in your warm hands it is always hard to hold onto when life happens; life always happens.  It blows my mind how the people in my life, that bring me the most joy, are also the same people the devil uses to try and steal my joy every single day.  I am talking about my husband and all three of my kids.  {GASP, you know what I am talking about friend.}  I love them all with a fierce passion but when I am really battling life it only takes a few words, yells or a moment of misbehavior for my joy to slip from my hands and shatter on the hot concrete at my feet as anger spews from my mouth and tears sting my eyes.  It is in those moments that I can almost hear satan laughing at me because he won the round.  I have literally yelled at him in front of my kids...more than once, and cried out in the name of JESUS for satan to get away from us. 

Today was no different; it is Sunday and he always attacks me on Sunday.  What a douchebag.  I was constantly battling the devil as he tried to steal my joy from the moment I awakened from a night of restless sleep.  We were late to church, per usual, Gamechanger was that child at the grocery store which caused me to rush out as quickly as possible and forget to purchase two items.  The grilled chicken sandwich I had to order from a burger chain was disgusting so I spit out the first bite and still haven't eaten lunch.  It is dinnertime now.  I had discipline issues with the Cowboy on the culd-de-sac which required me to parent in a way I don't like to parent and the annoying creme de la creme came about as I was packaging my spotless, completely in tact OLD iPhone for return to Verizon. 

I took my OLD phone into the local Verizon store one week ago because it was acting possessed.  They took a few minutes to look at my spotless phone and decide to send me a NEW one via mail which was completely covered under warranty.  FANTASTIC NEWS!  All was well and I received excellent customer service.  Then today as I am packing the OLD phone for shipment to the warranty return center it slips from my arms, hits the ground and cracks the screen!  Do you even know what that means???  That means when I return it they will charge me $300 for sending back a damaged phone!  A phone that was completely spotless one hour ago.  I literally cried on the phone with the local Verizon Wireless lady and explained to her that my tears were not because of some stupid phone; my tears were a product of all the stress in life right now and this cracked iPhone was simply the straw that broke this tired woman's back. She was very nice and understanding and suggested I go get the screen replaced and then the phone is in great condition again and I can return it. I'll be adding an errand to my list tomorrow.

All this to say once again that joy is a slippery little booger.  I wake up every morning so thankful for His mercy and grace and the opportunity to seek and find joy in life.  Yet every. single. day. joy slips in and out of my grasp.  Do you know exactly how I feel?  Are you tired?  Stressed?  Overwhelmed?  Do you even recognize yourself anymore?  Do you feel lonely?  I know we all are, but some of us are better at covering up the struggles in life with smiley selfies on social media and rants about how amazing our life is while the rest of us are running around looking like a hot mess with a messy bun (that isn't inspired by a cute tutorial on Pinterest), screaming toddlers, disobedient adolescents and a cracked iPhone.  Join me today as I once again yell at the devil to get away from me, because I really want to hold onto my joy today in the name of Jesus.  Jesus.  Jesus.

"You believe that God is one; you do well.  Even the demons believe - and shudder."  James 2:19

"No one is like you, LORD; you are great, and your name is mighty in power."  Jeremiah 10:6