We need to know who we are in Christ. Our greatest challenge is to remain in that which Christ has laid hold for us.

The means of promoting the joy of the Lord is prayer. This prayer is to be "without ceasing," implying constancy (Colossians 4:2) and perseverance (Romans 12:12; Ephesians 6:18; Luke 18:1).

Families can be hard work, annoying, complicated, hard work all at the same time of being easy, pleasant, simple and a joy. There’s nothing quite like family! Quirky yet lovely. Crazy yet fabulous!

There is no person or human situation that is beyond God's grace and power.

We are living pipelines drawing from sources in order to sustain others and others. Instead of running on our own steam we should rely on the greatest source that is Jesus.

“Most folks are about as happy as they make their minds up to be.” — Abraham Lincoln
The Old Testament commands us to delight ourselves in the Lord (Psalm 37:4) and to serve the Lord with gladness (Psalm 100:2) and to rejoice before the Lord our God in all our undertakings (Deuteronomy 12:18).
Jesus commands us, "Rejoice and leap for joy for your reward is great in heaven" (Luke 6:23), and he tells us, "These things I have spoken to you that my joy might be in you and your joy might be full" (John 15:11).
The apostle Paul commands us, "Rejoice in the Lord always, and again I say rejoice" (Philippians 4:4). He tells us that the fruit of the Spirit is joy (Galatians 5:22). He says that he is a worker with us for our joy (2 Corinthians 1:24) and that he lives for the advancement and joy of our faith (Philippians 1:25), and that God loves a cheerful giver.

Life can throw us obstacles and it feels like we are getting tossed around by the waves. When we are faced with difficult situations in life, we always have a choice in how we will approach the obstacles.

We all go through the wilderness at some point in our lives however, when you forget who God is and disobey Him, you delay God’s promises and forfeit His blessing.

“But I, brothers, could not address you as spiritual people, but as people of
the flesh, as infants in Christ. I fed you with milk, not solid food, for you were
not ready for it. And even now you are not yet ready, for you are still of the
flesh. For while there is jealousy and strife among you, are you not of the
flesh and behaving only in a human way? For when one says, “I follow Paul,”
and another, “I follow Apollos,” are you not being merely human?”
1 Corinthians 3:1-4 ESV

People may walk out on you. Turn on you. But God will always take care of you. We can always rely on God.