Count it ALL Joy

This is MOVING WEEK! Aaahhh... Boxes everywhere.  My in-laws have swooped in as much needed additional troops to aid in this massive operation. Even the kids have jumped in and bargained to earn $1 for each box they pack.  Deal.  Just pack!

Truckloads of our possessions have disappeared from our driveway and consumed the garage at the new house.  I refuse to think about the UNpacking process yet.  Yeesh. 

Good news: we will be spending the weekend in our new house!  Hooray!

As always, I'm required to be a Multi-Tasking Mommy. With all that's already happening around here, there are still school lunches to pack every morning, laundry to do, homework to complete, soccer games to attend, and end-of-the-year school events written on my calendar. We are BUSY.

Enter life interruption: My littlest boy woke up before 5am yesterday morning coughing and throwing up every 30 minutes, I was like, "Seriously?!" My plans for the day drastically changed as I traded taping boxes to disinfect, rotate laundry, schedule a doctor's appointment, and figure out who was going to pick up the older kids from school.  Great.

But as I went into Mommy-Nurse mode, a verse popped into my frazzled thoughts:
"Count it all joy... (James 1:2)"
 
Sometimes the Bible has so many eyebrow-raising notions that it causes us to stop and think, "Now, what does THAT mean?" Which is what I have been doing.  Thinking.  How do I find joy in struggles? I mean, what is happy about sickness?  What's so great about delays?

When my kids are sick, I do notice that it makes me slow down.  I have to drop everything and divert my attention to bringing them back to health.  Joy= Being there for my kids and showing them love.  This is what I'm here for. And thankfully rejoicing when they recover.

When my to do list is a mile long and I am overwhelmed at the prospect of not accomplishing what I need to do.  I am then required to stop and prioritize the important things, so that I'm not just being busy for the sake of being busy.  Thank goodness for a husband who thinks more logically than emotionally.  That helps too :-)  Joy= Constantly reminding myself to not make the small stuff big stuff. 

Joy= Friends and family that come out of the woodwork when you need them.
Joy= Every good night's rest and brand new morning to start over and try again.

How do YOU "count it all joy" when times are tough?