Making Peace with Your Emotions by Women of Faith

Author:Women of Faith
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: ebook, book
Publisher: HarperChristian Resources
Published: 2011-11-17T00:00:00+00:00

Eight

Contagious Joy

I’ve learned that people will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel.

MAYA ANGELOU,

FORMER POET LAUREATE

Have you ever been around someone who just exuded joy? You know the type . . . her glass always seems to be half full? Her smile seems to be a message from deep within rather than a simple facial expression. She has a love for life and a love for people that remains steady through all her own good and bad times.

Joy is a tiny little word that is often misunderstood in a big way. It is easy to confuse the word joy with happiness, and they do have similarities. They’re like best friends. Where you find one, you often find the other, and these are absolutely the kind of BFFs we need in our lives! The writer of Ecclesiastes emphasized the importance of living a happy life in Ecclesiastes 3:12: “Nothing is better for them than to rejoice, and to do good in their lives.”

True joy runs so much deeper into the soul than any amount of happiness could. Happiness, after all, is fleeting. You can easily be happy one minute and not happy the next. But the joy that comes from the Lord lasts forever and is consistently present regardless of circumstance or situation.

This kind of joy has a superbly positive effect on everyone around. It’s contagious. You just feel better about life after being exposed to joy, even in small doses. A research study performed by Harvard and MIT researchers documented that the spread of happiness (or sadness) is absolutely contagious, with spreading patterns very similar to communicable diseases like the flu.

The spread of happiness is absolutely contagious, with spreading patterns very similar to communicable diseases like the flu.

But here’s the best part—being full of joy is not only good for those around you, it’s actually good for your own body and soul as well. Researchers have conducted multiple studies associated with joy that scientifically prove there is physical benefit in being joyful. An article from BBC, for example, cites a group of American psychologists who discovered that positive thinkers live 7.5 years longer than their more pessimistic counterparts.1 Having a positive attitude toward aging proved to have even greater effect than physiological measures like blood pressure and cholesterol. And a University of Maryland School of Medicine study concluded that laughter helps blood vessels stay healthier.2

So for a healthy body and a healthy soul, take the advice of one of the Bible’s wisest prophets, Nehemiah, and let the joy of the Lord be your strength (Nehemiah 8:10). Joy is a gift and one that God loves to give us, especially as we put our complete trust in Him. Let’s be honest. All of us have room in our lives for a little bit more joy. We can experience more joy as we spend more time in God’s presence and allow the Holy Spirit to produce fruit in us as we walk in obedience to Him.

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