My mom nicknamed me Eeyore. She thought it truly expressed my soul. By nature, I have always been melancholy. Where others might reside on a baseline of 5 on the joy scale I was always resting at 2. My life has been good. It is not circumstances that have me down. Rather it is part of my personality. I experience joy and happiness, it just seems to be smaller peaks of happiness than others. Something pretty extraordinary has to happen for me to experience true joy. And because of that, I have looked upon others who seem to be happy in small stuff and it is hard not to wish to be more like them.

But that might explain my fanatical feeling toward God. For it was from Him and Him alone that I have found true lasting joy. This is joy uplifts all that I do so that I can now find joy in the most mundane task or everyday circumstance. In fact, this joy transforms my world in that circumstances aren’t the main thing that determines what I feel, rather what determines it is who I am in God’s eyes.

This of course doesn’t mean I always feel it. I still get down and focus on the wrong things and go back to moping like Eeyore. But the difference is that I know where to find joy. It is in God. It is not in our circumstances. It is not about how I feel today. It is not about how people treated me or even with how people see my worth. It is not in my bank account. It is not in my number of followers on Twitter. It is in God and God alone.

Knowing where to look for joy means that we run to our bibles when we realize we have taken our eyes off of Christ and have started to look for happiness elsewhere. Zephaniah 3:17 is a great one to run to; “The Lord your God is in your midst, a mighty one who will save; he will rejoice over you with gladness; he will quiet you by his love; he will exult over you with loud singing.”

It is sweet. It reminds us of how God sees us and so we can take heart. If God rejoices over us, why should we be sad?

2 Thessalonians 3:5 is another one that tells us where to look; “May the Lord direct your hearts to the love of God and to the steadfastness of Christ.” Know deep down in your heart that God loves you and look to the truth that Christ will never leave you. What could shake you then?

There are literally hundreds of verses and passages that could be mentioned. Find the ones that pull you up when you are down. Find ones that help redirect your gaze on Christ and our Father in heaven. And then be fanatical about pressing these into your minds and hearts. Let them marinate your soul. Have them become part of how you see and experience reality.

Will I ever not be an Eeyore? I don’t know. But I do know that when I remember how God loves me I don’t walk around like Eeyore as often. The joy I have in God who loves me and spills over onto other people in my life, I approach things with a better attitude, change is handled better, and overall my view of life is lifted. And that is enough, because God is enough.