I love when it is sunny. The hint of a morning sun instantly picks up my spirits. After a couple weeks of gloominess, the sun is a welcome interruption.
There are so many things out there that we allow to affect our moods. The weather. Friends. Work. Health. Amount of sleep. Circumstances. What we ate last night. We allow outside things to influence our internal feelings. We allow these things to make us mad. To make us sad. Or to depress us. Its so easy.
It is also easier for us to say "the sun didn't come out today, so I am sad. It is gloomy outside, so I feel depressed." It is so much more difficult to conquer the feelings that outside sources might suggest to us. It is much more difficult to overcome those ideas and actually decide to smile or to feel joy.
So often we allow ourselves to be influenced by these unimportant issues that we forget who should be the biggest influence in our lives. He is just kind of on the sideline as we go through our depressed state. We forget to look toward him to give us the joy that is for whatever reason missing from our lives at that moment.
However funny it sounds, though, the sunshine reminds me to praise him. To live love. To be thankful.
As I drove the six minutes to school this morning, the sun was just starting to rise. It made me smile. I popped in my old Matt Redman- Facedown- CD and sang the whole way to school. What a great way to start off my day. It put me into the right attitude.
The sun doesn't shine all the time in Michigan, though. I need to let God be the 'sunshine' in my life. I need to wake up praising him even when it is cloudy. Or when I am having problems at work. Or when I ate a banana split last night. Or when my hubby is crabby with me. I need to stop allowing these outside, less important issues cloud my relationship with God. I have a long way to go.