Radiant with Joy

I have a passion... something that gets me out of bed in the morning and keeps me pressing on throughout the day...its all about JOY. I love making peoples' day and bringing a smile where there was a frown! I love to sing loudly and spontaneously break out into dance... No one would say that I am a fabulous dancer, but they would have to admit I have LOTS of fun doing it! If someone asked for words that I want to be described as, the top of my list is always, "Joyful!" My heart longs for joy and the moments that are most defining in my life have been so because I chose joy. How we respond is always a choice and it's a challenge to step back and choose wisely. My life verse is Psalm 34:4-5 (NLT) "I prayed to the Lord and He answered me. He freed me from all my fears. Those who look to Him for help will be RADIANT with JOY; no shadow of shame will darken their faces." This is why I LOVE scripture! How poetic and powerful is this! Through him, we are given freedom from the fears that bound us, and we radiate HIS joy and we will never be covered with shame. I want to be full of JOY... so full that it spills out and radiates out of my very being so that when I smile to someone on the street they see the glory of God living in me. Too often I am not thinking of sharing the glory of God, but of promoting "Sarah" and her "cool-ness' to everyone around me. I want to change this and moment by moment dwell on the goodness of God so that I will continuously "look to Him" and be "RADIANT" for Him! I am an eternal optimist and as I sit here writing, I can imagine that I will do this daily, but I have an awareness that it is not by my own strength but by the Spirit that we are able to do something so bold. Living with a realist (my husband) helps me to know that our world is full of sin and things are flawed and not ideal, but we can both agree that through daily spending time with HIM, we can become the person He desires for us to be and we can radiate His Glory to the world.