Finding Joy in the Journey

10 years of school takes a very long time for a newlywed couple – long enough to have four kids and move six times across three states.

At least that is how it happened for us.

When we were in the thick of those years, I felt like they would never end. The financial stress alone nearly ate me alive. Oh, how I hated looking at how much money we did not have in our checking account. I remember staring at the computer screen many times, wondering how we were going to get those numbers out of the red before the next student loan check came along.

Throw in the exhausting days and weeks with a houseful of young kids and little help from Greg, who was up to his eyeballs in education and part-time jobs to help pay for diapers, and that was the story of my life.

All I could think about at that time was how wonderful it would be when we were finally finished with school. Life would be better then, and all of the stress, work, and sacrifice would instantly be worth it.

Now here we are, eight and a half years later. We have a good life – one that I am definitely not complaining about – one that is filled to the brim with blessings. However, it is not exactly how I pictured it. It is far less glamorous and filled with stress, challenges, worry and heartache that I could not have imagined back when I wanted nothing more than to arrive at the place where we are right now.

The perfect life that I pictured was nothing more than a figment of my imagination.

While I do not regret the hard work and sacrifice that got us to this point and continues to keep us pressing forward, I wish I would have more fully realized when we were immersed in the student life that it was good back then, too. I often missed the simple goodness of those lean years because I was too focused on what I was lacking, rather than being grateful for what I had in abundance – family, faith, love, and health, to name a few things.

I usually didn’t see beauty and prosperity, even though they were right in front of me. More often than not, I saw scarcity and stress.

What a shame. I wish I could go back and have a heart to heart talk with my younger self about all of the things that I was missing.

My experience has convinced me that the grass is usually not as green as we imagine it to be on the other side of the proverbial fence. Joy, therefore, is not found in the destination, but in the journey – the difficult, stressful, sometimes heart-wrenching, but beautiful journey. The journey that takes us up mountains and through valleys, molding us into something stronger and more exquisite than we could have possibly become if the path had been flat and leisurely.

There is danger in looking for happiness in future milestones and accomplishments at the expense of finding it today, because you risk missing it altogether.

Joy is usually not the first thing we see when life hands us an armload of challenges. Admittedly, I am one who sees a world of possibilities for the future. I frequently look there for hope when the present does not seem as promising as I would like it to be.

While hope is a good thing, too much focus on the future invariably keeps me from seeing the wonder that is right in front of me.

Sometimes things happen to us that we never would have chosen. Life usually does not go according to our plans.

But don’t say “I will be happy when….”

Joy is an attitude. Joy is a choice.

Whatever your circumstances, choose to find it today.