Surviving Bad Attitudes-Chapter 8 continued-Don't Let Anyone Steal Your Joy

Remember this passage from the wise man:

Proverbs 17:22 "A merry heart doeth good like a medicine: but a broken spirit drieth the bones."

The Message "A cheerful disposition is good for your health; gloom and doom leave you bone-tired."

NIRV "A cheerful heart makes you healthy. But a broken spirit dries you up."

My dad was probably the happiest man that I ever knew in spite of walking thru more situations in his last years of ministry than I can remember. My dad died at my age, 57, from a major heart attack. He never got to see all of his grandchildren be born or even experience what it meant to be a great grandfather. I know he's in heaven and I will see him again. I also know that God's plan is God's plan for all of us. But I can't help but think how much different things could have been if some of the situations he faced in the latter half of his ministry had of been different. Some where along the way his joy was stolen from him. Yes, he put on a good face and really did try to keep a stiff upper lip, but you could tell many times how the stinging words of his critics affected him his last few years of ministry.

I really believe that my dad would be alive today if not for one incident that took place. He had to take a sabbatical due to his health and was out of full-time ministry for 9 months. Finally when the doctor released him our Administrative Bishop presented his name at a church where a friend of our family had recently retired as pastor. Instead of welcoming my dad as the pastor, the retired minister got up before the congregation and made my dad look like an invalid to the congregation. Needless to say, he did not get the vote to be pastor of that church.

Even though God gave my dad a church within two weeks of that situation, it seemed to rip the wind out of his sails. He lost his joy somewhere aloing the way. And for the next few years of pastoring my dad became very distant even to the people that loved him the most. About two years before he died, I saw the dad I grew up with return to who he was as God begin to restore his joy. In fact, when he passed into eternity he had been at his new assignment for just 6 weeks. Yet three weeks before his homegoing he told me he was the happiest he had been in years.

My point is God is the author of your joy. Don't let anybody or anything steal it from you. Those BA people that always get under your skin have one goal in mind and that is to make you miserable. Don't let them succeed.