Have you lost your HAPPY?

Wedding Day
Everybody's happy, right?

"Why should they stay together if they're not happy?"

This, from my twenty-three year old college graduate after a rash of friends announced that their parents were divorcing after twenty plus years of marriage.

"Happy..." I repeated, letting the word penetrate. 

As if a divorce would bring the "happy" 
back into their lives. 

I shuddered, remembering the trauma and devastation left behind from my divorce. Almost three decades later, the emotional scars still linger.

Obviously, we don't always have a choice when it comes to divorce. The other person may choose it for us. Just like we don't have a choice when cancer strikes or when we lose a loved one to suicide. 

But do we have a choice when it comes to being happy?

What do you think? Next week we'll continue this discussion along with ways to get your HAPPY back.

...weeping may stay for the night, but rejoicing comes in the morning. 

Psalm 30:5b NIV

Still wallowing in the past?

I was in my early twenties when my previous marriage failed. 

After living by the rules and being a "good girl" my entire life, I rebelled.
Against marriage. Rules. Men.
Life in general.
I drifted far from God, angry with Him for allowing my marriage to fall apart.
It wasn't until I met my true soul mate five years later that I realized God hadn't left me.
I'd abandoned Him.

The Lord is compassionate and gracious, slow to anger, abounding in love.

He will not always accuse, nor will he harbor his anger forever;

he does not treat us as our sins deserve or repay us according to our iniquities.

For as high as the heavens are above the earth, so great is his love for those who fear him;

as far as the east is from the west, so far has he removed our transgressions from us. (Psalms 103:8-12 NIV)

Aren't you glad that God doesn't hold grudges?

That He doesn't list conditions for forgiveness or withhold His love
until we meet certain requirements?

Even before we ask, He's removed our sins so far away
that we'll never meet up with them again.

Forgiveness. Amazing Grace.
It's unconditional. No strings attached.
You haven't done anything that He can't or won't forgive.

He says He will. Isn't that enough?

I've surrendered my past to God. Have you? 
Where are you in your journey?