Choose Joy~~~

We've all seen the letters written to 'Santa' by kids who hope they were good enough to get some cool toys for Christmas.  My kids have always known that Santa isn't real ~ he's just a man dressed up in a red suit with a white beard.  But they still make Christmas lists.  They just give theirs to Grandma!!:)
Their lists include all kinds of toys, candy and oodles of stuff they think would be fun to have.  They look through all the catalogs we get this time of year and they circle what they want and put their initials beside it.  This year Middle Sister has rewritten her list several times.  It is hilarious to read.  Not much is spelled correctly and it is a guessing game to figure out what she is talking about.  She CAN spell pretty well on a spelling test but she doesn't want to take the time to think about it when writing a list so she just writes it how it sound:)

I have my own 'Wish List' too.  Stuff like this:

Italian Glassware

Baskets

Urns (my hubby already bought me these!!)

and my list can go on and on and on and on and on.......  There is always STUFF that looks fun to have or things I think I need.

Ever been a 'Secret Santa'??  Since I don't believe in Santa I don't necessarily call it that but it is fun to give someone a gift and not tell them who it is from.  And then there are always the 'gag' gifts given to family members to be funny and signed on the card ~from Santa.  Maybe we are the only family that has done that?  And maybe people who actually believe in Santa or teach their children to believe in Santa wouldn't get it!!

Anyway.  IF I believed in Santa this is what I would be asking Him for:

Yep.  THREE of them.  I would love to open my door and see 3 of these lined up on the rug outside.  You see, we have to do school in our school room because that is where the computers are. And The Teenager and Middle Sister do their work online.  And then I have to grade it online.  The school room is on the opposite end of the house from the warmly burning corn stove.  It is the coldest room in the house:(  As I type this my fingers and nose are like icicles.  I'm shivering.  No matter how many layers of warm clothes you put on, your fingers have to be out to use the keyboard and a pencil.  And my toes slowly get cold even with my warmest boots on.  Just sitting in a chilly room does that to me.  And once I get cold it is very hard for me to get warm.  My girls are not loving the chilliness either.  If we had laptops we could take our school work to the living room where it is warm.  AND I could blog from my warm living room:)

Since the funds for laptops has not magically appeared in our school fund I'd ask 'Santa' for some (if I believed in him).  But I don't believe in Santa.  So just if anyone was wondering what to get me for a Secret Santa gift now you know!!  heehee!

What I'm really asking for is that God will help me choose JOY in every situation.  Even when I'm cold. Even when the girls complain about the cold.  Even when school isn't going well.  Even when by the end of the day I'm so exhausted from trying to wrap my mind around GCF's, LCM's, bases, number sequences, adverbs, adjectives,....  that I don't even care that dinner needs made let alone want to bother making it!!
I want to choose JOY all the time.  Not just when I get the STUFF I want but when I have to make do with what I have. 
I don't want just a 'happy holidy' or even a 'merry Christmas'.  I want the JOY and PEACE that only Christ can give.

So while I think I want the glassware, the baskets, (am loving using one of my urns for our Christmas tree), the LAPTOPS:), and all of that would me nice and fun and make me happy for the moment, I know that with or without all of that I must CHOOSE JOY!!!  I CAN be joyful in all things ~ good and bad.  And by choosing joy and being in Christ I will have HIS PEACE!

CHOOSE JOY!!