Choose happiness

Life at the moment is going really well. There are lots of positives and not many negatives. Chloe is getting on really well at preschool; Livia is gorgeous and I'm loving interacting with her more; J is about to be announced as a new elder at our church, and I am busy with various little projects and have a nicely full diary with regular toddler groups, lovely friends to see and support from family.

The only thing about when times are good is that it can make you feel a bit sad that it won't last! I know that sounds very pessimistic but it's true! In a few months I will be returning to work 2 days a week which will change our routine completely. I am a bit nervous about how Livia is going to cope being away from me (especially as she won't even take a bottle yet!). Some close friends of ours are looking to move away, which is sad (but if you read this, I know it's for good reasons!). And probably the biggest thing for me is my parents are going back to India in January and are also selling our family home too.

A big part of me wants to mope about and feel sad about the changes that are coming. It's so easy to feel like you are entitled to feel bad and take it out on everyone else. But... There's nothing I can do about any of these things, especially mum and dad going, so I could either make life boring and miserable by choosing to feel sad, or I can choose happiness in the situation and enjoy the positive things in my life.

I trust that God has good things in store for me and he knows the path ahead. I am very thankful for times of blessing and plenty. But I know I will also have plenty of blessing in the hard times too.

 I will choose to praise God and be joyful today!

Update...

After posting this I was talking with Chloe. I haven't been great at choosing happiness today and have been a bit tearful. When I say 'choosing happiness' I don't mean denying how you really feel or making my kids think I don't approve of being sad. So I said to Chloe that I was feeling a bit sad today and I'm sorry for being tearful. She said 'Thats ok mummy. I'm trying to cheer you up.' What a beautiful girl!