Are You an Eeyore or a Tigger?

I love working with 1st graders - they tell it like it is. According to them I am the most beautiful singer, the prettiest teacher and the best "colorer" (one out of three of those statements is true!)

Every Monday morning we sit in a circle and pass around the feelings basket.
It is filled with 4 different colored balls. Each color represents a different feeling.
Red = Mad
Blue = Sad
Green = Excited
Purple = Happy

Most days they will pull out the purple ball and say "I feel happy because I'm happy".

Simple.

I just read an article where the author concluded that the most fulfilling kind of happiness is the one that isn't connected to your circumstances. When your feelings are effected by what's going on in your life it becomes fleeting and unsustainable. Nobody can have good things happen to them constantly and believe it or not, no one can have bad things happen to them constantly either (though it may not feel that way!)

I found that very interesting.

In the Bible there is a short little verse that reads:
"Be joyful always" 1 Thessalonians 5:16

Simple, right? But what does it mean to be joyful? I used to connect joy with a feeling that might come and go.
New bike = joy. Failed test = no joy.

But when I began reading the Bible and understanding the words I realized that joy was not an emotion, but a decision based on my relationship with God. I was His child with all the acceptance, love and "perks" that come with it. Therefore I could "be joyful always" - no matter the circumstances, no matter the feeling. Oswald Chambers says in his book My Utmost for His Highest "Joy means the perfect fulfilment of that for which I was created and regenerated, not the successful doing of a thing."

Now joy and happiness are two different things. I wasn't "happy" when my mom died, but I did have "joy". I knew that I would see her again, that she was in Heaven and that God would give me the strength to get through it. I was "happy" when my kids were born, but I also had "joy" that somehow was even deeper than the happiness I was feeling at the moment.

I often think of Tigger and Eeyore - nothing could make Eeyore happy and nothing could make Tigger sad.

But was there joy in Tigger's life? Do we walk around with a sappy smile on our face (and a spring in our tail) ignoring what is happening around us or are we really feeling our feelings and choosing to have "joy" in them?

Or are we like Eeyore? Are we making everyone around us sad because we let our circumstances dictate our emotions instead of choosing joy no matter the circumstance?

It's something to think about. I want to be like my 1st graders - I want to be happy because I'm happy but more than that I want to have joy because I am the Lord's child - now that makes sense!!