“There is no positive power to change anything by being negative. Be Pro-sitive!” –Leadershipology.com
How important is joy in your life? The Bible says, “The JOY of the Lord is your strength.” The core of your joy is your relationship with God. That is how important that joy is in your life. Joy is not something that happens from the outside in, it happens from the inside out. Joy is a spirit (inside), happiness is something that happens on the outside. Happiness is a by-product of Joy.
When EVERYTHING around you is in chaos take comfort in knowing, the JOY of the Lord is YOUR strength. It doesn’t matter what is going on around me, in order for me to have the fruit of JOY, my strength is in the Lord. Your strength is from the inside out.
How do you grow the fruit of joy? You must first sow the seed of Gratitude. It is impossible to be grateful and negative at the same time. The fruit of JOY is important, but it does not happen without Gratitude.
There’s an old saying that if you’ve forgotten the language of gratitude, you’ll never be on speaking terms with happiness. It turns out this isn’t just a fluffy idea. Several studies have shown depression to be inversely correlated to gratitude. It seems that the more grateful a person is, the less depressed they are. Philip Watkins, a clinical psychologist at Eastern Washington University, found that clinically depressed individuals showed significantly lower gratitude (nearly 50 percent less) than non-depressed controls.
Dr. John Gottman at the University of Washington has been researching marriages for two decades. The conclusion of all that research, he states, is that unless a couple is able to maintain a high ratio of positive to negative encounters (5:1 or greater), it is likely the marriage will end.
With 90 percent accuracy, Gottman says he can predict, often after only three minutes of observation, which marriages are likely to flourish and which are likely to flounder. The formula is that for every negative expression (A complaint, frown, put-down, expression of anger) there needs to be about five positive ones (smiles, compliments, laughter, expressions of appreciation and gratitude)
Be grateful…the joy of the Lord is your strength.
Based on the, Into Me See series message entitled, “How to Grow Fruitful from the Inside Out, Part 2” To see the full message, click here.
For additional personal growth and development resources, click here.
For daily, inspirational leadership quotes, click here.
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