Rejoice

About a month ago, our staff and board were in the Outer Banks together to cast vision, have meetings and squeeze in a couple of surf sessions. The first day, I borrowed a friends board and I was pumped to catch some fun looking waves with everyone. But 30 minutes passed, 45, and an hour and I couldn’t get anything! Every time I paddled for a wave, it lifted me up, and at the last minute pushed me off of it. I was getting pretty frustrated but I thought “hey it’s still a beautiful day, I’ll get some tomorrow”. However, the next day at our sunset paddle out, it was the same exact story! Now I was getting mad. It was pitch black when I got out of the water and I stormed off alone trying to brush it off.

When I got home from the trip, I was still in this funk and couldn’t rally to go surfing. It was a beautiful day, and the waves looked fun, but I just couldn’t shake the lack of motivation to do what I knew would make me feel better. That evening, I just randomly felt God pushing on my heart to talk about what I was grateful for. Well sure enough, my husband and I started going back and forth stating things that we were grateful for and it changed not only my mood, but brought joy to my husband as well. God’s desire is to love us endlessly and unconditionally, but I got tripped up and caught in a headspace that focused on the negative feelings rather than the boundless love and peace of the Father. It states in Philippians 4:4-7 “Rejoice in the Lord always; again I will say, rejoice. Let your reasonableness be known to everyone. The Lord is at hand; do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.”

Being grateful is the missing piece to the equation! It’s within our power to choose gratefulness in moments of stress, which lead to the joy and peace that comes from the Lord. Your situation right now may feel unfair, you may be hurt, broken or feeling cast aside, but guess what? God is there for you and through Him, we have so much to be thankful for. So next time you are having a bummer day or can’t catch any waves, look out at the ocean, take a few minutes to share your gratefulness to God and allow His peace to surpass all understanding.

Image: Emily Benedetto