Will the Real Joy Thief Please Stand Up

Someone tried to steal my joy this week and make me feel like a bad person. I stewed over it for 24 hours and fumed and thought "how dare she?!" I even thought how nice it would be if Throat Punch Thurday was a real thing. (I wrote this on a Thursday btw). I was so enraged by the event that I felt like a bad person. In my bitterness God said to me, "you're the one robbing yourself of joy, and you are letting a minor blip eat you alive. Throat Punch Thursday? Do you really want to punch yourself?" And I thought, no, I already limp severely; I don't need a black eye to draw even more unwanted attention to myself. For the record, I didn't audibly hear all that dialogue from the Heavens, but nonetheless, God convicted me in my spirit.

How often do we steal our own joy? How many times a day do we blame others for how we feel? Why can't we all Taylor Swift it and just shake it off when we feel wronged? Or pull an Elsa and let it go? It's because we like our own drama. We are like dogs who come back to smell their own business. Gross? So is the filth we wallow in just so we can play the role of martyr. And worse, we bring our friends and family to see our dirty business so they can turn up their noses too. And once we have a contingency behind us agreeing with us about how awful we've been wronged, our small predicament becomes a full blown catastrophe. Here's an example. 

Last weekend the 5 Kings were in a hotel room, and I jokingly told my oldest his sister's dolls were going to watch him sleep. Well that just provoked him to move the dolls, which provoked the girl to explode into hysterics. She sounded like she was having a limb removed from her body all because her dolls face planted at the hand of her diabolical brother. This lasted over an hour and resulted in a hyperventilating kid who is now grounded from playing with said dolls because of her dramatic display. If you think I'm exaggerating her reaction, we can check the hotel surveillance footage. She was wronged in her mind, and her anger extended itself to the entire building. CPS is still investigating! That part might  be an actual exaggeration, but her outcry was absurdly loud, ugly, and eternal. The whole family, if not the entire 4th floor, got to be disrupted right along with her because she made sure we all beheld the dirty deed she'd been dealt. Yet here I am, just a few days after this nonsense, failing to see the ridiculousness of my own display. I stole my joy, and I let someone else take the blame for it. Shame on me. John C. Boger said, "Anger and bitterness are two noticeable signs of being focused on self and not trusting God’s sovereignty in your life. When you believe that God causes all things to work together for good to those who belong to Him and love Him, you can respond to trials with joy instead of anger or bitterness.” Responding to trials with joy is a virtue I have yet to master. However, I am still moldable clay in the Potter's hands, and I am willing to be reshaped by His patient mercy and grace rather than becoming hardened by my circumstances.
So if you hear me rant about a righteous indignation, please hum a little pop princess tune to me, and I'll know it's time to shake it off, let it go, and move on.