Lifestyle

6 Ways To Ensure Unhappiness

We all want to be happy, but yet often we are our own worst enemies!  I know that quite often the only reason that I am unhappy is that I choose to be.  Here are 6 quick way to ensure that you are unhappy!6 ways to ensure unhappiness | lookingjoligood.wordpress.com

1.Have Unrealistic Expectations

Unmet expectations will almost always be the cause of your unhappiness in life.

Unmet expectations are usually what causes anger as well. It is not always easy to admit that the true source of your anger and unhappiness is from not getting what you wanted!

Minimize your expectations, maximize your joy.

2. Have Uncommunicated Expectations

Guess what? No one is a mind reader! Can you believe it?! It is true.

If you want someone in your life to do something, first they need to know what you want from them. Don’t get upset when you expect something from someone that they have no clue about.

Give the people in your life the opportunity to choose whether or not they want to meet your expectations.

6 ways to ensure unhappiness | lookingjoligood.wordpress.com

3. Don’t Be Honest With Yourself

Sometimes, I have to stop and ask myself “Why am I doing what I am doing?”  Sometimes I know exactly why.  Sometimes the answer is clear and positive.  Sometimes I don’t really know what my motivation is.

Sometimes I have to really take a step back and be honest with myself, “What do I want out of this situation?”  I don’t always like the answer that I have to give myself.

 The integrity of the upright guides them, but the unfaithful are destroyed by their duplicity.
Proverbs 11:3

6 ways to ensure unhappiness | lookingjoligood.wordpress.com

4. Don’t Be Honest With Others

So many ugly situations in life could be avoided if we were to live by the simple truth of “Say what you mean and mean what you say!”

Do you want to host Easter dinner? Nope.

Then when you are asked to host, be honest about it and say “No.”  Don’t say you will host and then make it clear to everyone around you that you don’t want to have them at your house.

Better a small serving of vegetables with love than a fattened calf with hatred.
Proverbs 15:17

Are you upset because someone hurt your feelings? YES!

Tell them the truth about the way you feel, don’t say “Nothing” when asked what is wrong.  If it is important enough to you to make you upset, it should be important enough for you to share.

Be respectful of the relationship and give them the chance to correct the situation.

Dear children, let us not love with words or speech but with actions and in truth.
1 John 3:18

1 John 3:18 | lookingjoligood.blog
photo credit: Bible app

5. Assign Intent To Others

On a daily basis, we can find a something to get offended about.

What happened?

Your friend didn’t like your IG photo.
Your co-workers went to lunch without you.
Your sisters got together for a playdate with their kids and you weren’t included.
Two people you know were having a serious conversation and didn’t acknowledge you.
Your friends had a girl’s night out and you couldn’t go.

Don’t take things personally! Almost always, people are not against you, they are just for themselves.

Bear with each other and forgive one another if any of you has a grievance against someone. Forgive as the Lord forgave you.
Colossians 3:13

Colossians 3:13 | lookingjoligood.blog
Photo credit: Bible app

If you want to be unhappy give intent to the unintentional things that other people do!

6. Compare your life to others.

“Comparison is the thief of joy.”-Theodore Roosevelt

In this world of social media, it is so hard not to get sucked into comparing ourselves with others. Due to social media, we see so much more of people’s “private” lives.

The problem is that we are usually comparing all of our flaws with the snapshots of an edited filtered picture perfect life.  Their reality is that they also have flaws that we do not see.

Each one should test their own actions. Then they can take pride in themselves alone, without comparing themselves to someone else, for each one should carry their own load.
Galatians 6:4-5

Stop it! Be grateful for what you do have! 

A Flower Does Not Think of Competing With the Flower Next to It. It Just Blooms! | lookingjoligood.wrodpress.com

Follow these simple steps to have a completely unhappy life! 😉

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6 ways to ensure unhappiness | lookingjoligood.wordpress.com

Lifestyle

The Devil Made Me Do It

While recently away in Florida on a family vacation, we did A LOT of driving. During these times in the car, we passed the time listening to old episodes of Adventures in Odyssey. My kids LOVE them, as both my husband and I did as children.

Adventures in Odyssey | lookingjoligood.blog
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Something about the episode we listened to the one night caught my ear and really made me think. The episode is called “The Devil Made Me Do It” It has three separate stories done in a “variety show” style each with the similar theme of resisting temptation.

While Adventures in Odyssey is made for children and done in an entertaining way, the concepts have such deeper meanings.

The Bible tells us the enemy is roaming the earth seeking people to destroy; it is also true that as Christians we have the power of God living inside of us. We already have the power to resist.

Submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you.
James 4:7

James 4:7 | lookingjoligood.blog

Is it wrong to be tempted? Of course not, even Jesus was tempted by Satan.

For we have not an high priest which cannot be touched with the feeling of our infirmities; but was in all points tempted like as we are, yet without sin. Hebrews 4:15

We all have different hang-ups and different things that tempt us. Maybe you’re trying to get healthier and you are tempted by the bread basket or having second helpings of dinner. (My weakness is chocolate chip cookies!🍪)

Maybe you are tempted to compare yourself to others which in turn can lead to unkindness and gossiping.

Maybe you are a procrastinator always tempted to put things off until the last minute.

Whatever you’re tempted by God has given us the power to overcome it!

Let not sin therefore reign in your mortal body, that ye should obey it in the lusts thereof. Neither yield ye your members as instruments of unrighteousness unto sin: but yield yourselves unto God, as those that are alive from the dead, and your members as instruments of righteousness unto God.
Romans 6:12‭-‬13

Romans6:12 | lookingjoligood.blog

When it comes to temptation does the “Devil make me do it”? No, but he’s definitely going to be ready to tempt you to sin. Put up a good fight and resist that temptation!

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Love and Life

Responding to Closed Doors

This devotional from In Touch is too good not to share! Waiting on God after praying and praying and getting an answer of “yes, but not yet.” is so tough! Waiting on God’s blessings in His time are always worth the wait.

Responding to Closed Doors

Genesis 16:1-16

God answers prayer in one of three ways: “yes,” “no,” or “yes, but not yet.” This last reply seems to be the most dreaded— sometimes even more than an outright “no.” However, patience is an important trait for the Christian, as Scripture stresses repeatedly in stories, psalms, and epistles.

Waiting on the Lord to unlock a door is always wiser than attempting to pry it open ourselves, even when the delay has been long. After God promised him descendants (Gen. 12:2), Abraham lived for 25 years with an answer of “not yet.” After that quarter-century, the answer finally became “yes.” But meanwhile, Abraham and Sarah came up with their own plan to get an heir—Sarah’s servant Hagar bore Ishmael. The couple may have convinced themselves they were “helping” God live up to His prophecy, but really they were disobeying. The consequences were disastrous. Bitterness and blame affected every member of the family (Gen. 16:4-6; Gen. 21:9-10). What’s more, Ishmael’s people lived in enmity with their neighbors, and that hostility persists in the Middle East today (Gen. 21:9-14; Gen. 25:18).

Responding to Closed Doors | lookingjoligood.blog

Our patience gives God time to prepare the opportunity on the other side of a closed door. Even if we could force our way by manipulating circumstances, we would not be happy with what we find there. No one in Abraham’s camp was satisfied with the situation they created! We can have contentment and joy only when we access the Lord’s will at the very moment He ordained. The blessings we find on the other side of an open door are always worth the wait.

https://www.intouch.org/read/magazine/daily-devotions

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Ditch The Diet for Healthy Habits

Caught in the Food Fixation Trap?

~Ditch the Diet~

Here is a great devotional by Asheritah Ciuciu that I found to be very helpful!

Caught in the Food Fixation Trap? | lookingjoligood.blog

Caught in the Food Fixation Trap?

We live in a world that both worships and vilifies food. A quick glance at Pinterest or Instagram reveals our society’s fixation with food, from scrumptious recipes that make your mouth water (often known as “food porn”) to scathing articles about the origins, sustainability, and ethics of the ingredients that make up our meals. For something as mundane as what we eat, food has become an increasingly complex issue that causes many of us to feel guilty, overwhelmed, and even hopeless.

For those of us who have spent years on the roller coaster of dieting, food fixation adds another layer of complexity to our journey. It’s tempting to dwell in the land of if-only’s: If only I could overcome my sweet tooth. If only I would develop a craving for carrot sticks. If only God would miraculously transform the calorie count in blueberry streusel muffins…. then I could finally overcome my food struggles.

e become so fixated on the food we eat—or don’t eat—that we fail to realize that food itself is not our enemy. Food is a good gift from a loving Father, given to turn our hearts and minds to Him in worship.

God could have created our human bodies to subsist on energy-dense flakes. But in His goodness, God chose to create a veritable cornucopia of foods with unique colors, textures, tastes, and smells to both nurture us and delight our taste buds. Seen in this way, food is a thoughtful gift from a loving Father.

So for those of us struggling with our food choices, our journey toward overcoming food fixation begins with recognizing this first basic truth: food is a good gift and it is not our enemy. And as we’ll see in the next few days, the fullness we seek in food can only be found in Jesus.

Food is a good gift from a loving Father,
given to turn our hearts and minds
to Him in worship.

Hold tight to the truth of Scripture and celebrate God’s goodness through His gift of food.

Reflection Questions: Have you ever heard the implicit or explicit message that food is bad? How has this type of thinking influenced your relationship with food? What are the implications of the truth that food is a good gift meant to turn our hearts toward God?

Genesis 9:3 Every moving thing that liveth shall be meat for you; even as the green herb have I given you all things.

1 Timothy 4:1-5 Now the Spirit speaketh expressly, that in the latter times some shall depart from the faith, giving heed to seducing spirits, and doctrines of devils;
2 Speaking lies in hypocrisy; having their conscience seared with a hot iron;
3 Forbidding to marry, and commanding to abstain from meats, which God hath created to be received with thanksgiving of them which believe and know the truth.
4 For every creature of God is good, and nothing to be refused, if it be received with thanksgiving:
5 For it is sanctified by the word of God and prayer.

Food Is Not The Enemy

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