Joy Thieves & Joy Givers

There are certain people who try and steal your joy.  You're trying something new and they have all the advice in the world but they go about sharing it in the completely wrong way.  Something I've tried to do as I get older is not offer advice unless it's asked for.  This is an extremely difficult discipline to live by and something I'm still not great at.  Normally for me though I ask people for advice when I want it, not before.  I ask certain people who I consider to know a lot in their fields for advice in that field and others for advice in other fields.  Seems only logical to me.

For instance, everyone has an opinion on diet and fitness, but I have one friend who I seek out advice from bc he's a personal trainer and nutrition expert if not an official nutritionist yet.  He gives wise counsel in that area even though I struggle immensely to implement his advice.  There are others though who I would consider to be joy thieves.  People who offer unsolicited advice that you can't take seriously bc of how they themselves look.

This also feeds into the notion that who you surround yourself is very important bc you start taking on their characteristics unwillingly.  Are the people who you hang around with joy thieves or joy givers?  No one is always one or the other, but I greatly admire people who choose joy even as they get older.  The more experience one has the easier it seems to fall into cynicism.  At least that's the case with me.  Cynicism is something I fight almost daily.  Those who cultivate joy may make it look easy, but even for them I know it's a discipline that has taken a lot of practice.

Joy doesn't always look like happiness, sometimes it's simply trusting God in the midst of difficult circumstances.  It often goes hand in hand with hope and trusting that this too shall pass.  

I'm reading a book right now and trying to change my thinking.  It's particularly difficult to do for someone who has had negative thoughts playing in his head for as long as he can remember.  But it's so so worth the fight.