We tend to have expectations for how things should turn out. We have just recently been through a holiday season with a heightened anticipation of how we want our holidays to be. We have family members we do not see often who raise concerns or conflicts. We may have expectations of how Christmas was in our family we grew up with and our present family doesn’t have the same traditions or ways of celebrating. Our kids may be expecting a lot from the gifts that didn’t turn out as expected. The list goes on…

Or we may go on a vacation and want to experience positive feelings that aren’t there. My husband Les and I recently went on a vacation during the holidays to Cancun, Mexico. We thought it would be a nice reprieve from the Colorado weather. With 80-degree weather, it was a nice change. My skin really soaked up the moisture from the humidity, but my hair was a different story. Having curly hair has always been a challenge when I travel from the dry air here to humid places. It was very unruly. Fortunately, no one that I knew was there to see me, so I just pulled it back, wore a visor and let go of my need to look attractive.

What I experienced was long customs lines, waiting to even sign in to our resort, hunger from lack of gluten-free options, and not to mention my cold had turned into laryngitis the first day we were there. Not a relaxing picture of starting a vacation!  Not being able to talk but a little whisper brought me to the awareness of how important our voice is.

With all of this stress, I wasn’t acting very polite to the clerks and people we encountered. I realized at the end of the day that I needed to repent and ask for forgiveness for how I had responded to people we had encountered. I am aware that God can give me good feelings of peace and joy amid things not going well on the outside.  I asked to experience His peace which is a supernatural encounter when I don’t feel it inside. Surprisingly enough I did experience those feelings.

I was reading today in a devotional, Jesus Always, that we can ask for joy to fill us up anytime we need it, even in the deepest of severe suffering.  His spirit can give you this wondrous gift. It’s free and available to each of us. All we have to do is ask!

Another way we can experience joy is to see things through spiritual eyes. We can ask for His perspective to help you see things differently from our human eyes. We tend to interpret things negatively and see things as the worst possible, whereas we can learn to trust that there is some good in what we are experiencing. The world continually gives us falsehoods of lies and deceptions. If we continue to listen to those voices, we will be so discouraged.

If we ask God to show us His truth and His perspective, we may see something good that is there in our circumstances. What I got from this trip was a better understanding of how to access joy and peace during things not working out according to our desires. Much envy has been felt toward those that travel, so I was able to see it’s not all it’s played up to be.

Practice these steps as you enter the New Year:

• Ask for peace or joy when facing difficulties.
• Reframe your perspective of how you see circumstances.
• See the good in things happening you find challenging.

Blessings for your renewed perspective in the new year!