CHOOSE DANCING

Choosing dancing can be an easy choice when life is going well. 

It can also be an easy choice when one is at the Apple store getting help on a disabled computer while using their wifi. Apple Store wifi dances and does not drop----hooray for "dancing" wifi!"

But....do we sometimes get complacent and forget to choose dancing. Forget to celebrate. Forget to be thankful.

Dancing can be an expression of gratitude.

Gift from Ashley Bryan---Used with the Artist's Permission

A video with "my" Ukraine ladies dancing with the Lord along with their ladies from India warmed my heart. They chose to take my D.A.N.C.E. teaching to India. We often think we, the United States, are the only ones who send missionaries. At the missions conference this week the number of missionaries going out from South Korea was unbelievable.
Some are sent to the US. Just last year, I met, in Turkey, a lady from South Korea who, with her husband, had been a missionary in New York City.
Such news pleased me as NY is home to three of my most precious loved ones.

That kind of news makes it easy to "choose dancing" knowing it can be a way of praising God in worship! Toe Tapping WORSHIP from the heart! 

Joy Multiplied

7/9/09 Multiply joy; share with others.
There must be something to this pass it on idea----it’s like getting more for your money, more bang for your buck, more blessing for your “bit” of effort. “Double your pleasure----Double your fun"---Double your blessing when all’s said and done.
Give, and it will be given to you; a good measure, pressed down, shaken together, and running over, they will pour into your lap. For whatever measure you deal out to others, it will be dealt to you in return." Luke 6:38

Maybe if we’re not finding much love or joy coming our way in life, we need to find someone needier than we are and pass on what bit we have. Just reaching out to someone else can be a blessing but often in my life, when I’ve had eyes to see, I’ve seen God return the blessing twofold. Today as Larry and I took some muffins and fruit to welcome a new neighbor to our street, we met delightful Susan, who loves the Lord & preaches the Word. Isn’t God good?

Of course, joy isn’t always easy. Some of the greatest joy comes from the deepest sorrow. It has been said that our portion/cup of joy can only be as deep as our portion/cup of sorrow. Believe it or not, joy really is a gift---unlike temporary happiness that can come when we “buy” ease/comfort or security. We can choose true joy even if the price tag includes pain and suffering/sorrow or endurance and faithfulness that we never new we had. Six months ago today I heard the word biopsy for the very first time. I even heard the word cancer being spoken to me not someone else---though Dr. Schneider thought the tissue removal procedure would rule out that diagnosis. Whatever sadness or fear those words brought to bear, there was and has always been a calm in the midst of that storm. When the diagnosis was positive, there was real acceptance, not a sorrowful resignation. And the blessings began to flow………..I saw the goodness of the Lord in so many of you!! You were my “land of the living” that ministered to me day after day, week after week and month after month and my soul is braver and more joyful that ever before. The sign at my backdoor, where friends enter, declares that my sorrow has been turned into joy! I bet my new neighbor will like it.

• “You have turned for me my mourning into dancing….. and girded me with gladness,”(Psalm 30:11)