{"id":5446,"date":"2013-02-12T01:00:12","date_gmt":"2013-02-12T09:00:12","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.doorposts.com\/blog\/?p=5446"},"modified":"2013-02-11T20:08:07","modified_gmt":"2013-02-12T04:08:07","slug":"happy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.doorposts.com\/blog\/2013\/02\/12\/happy\/","title":{"rendered":"Not Happy?"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"I love children’s Bible story books. Books like The Jesus Storybook Bible <\/em><\/a>, <\/em>by Sally Lloyd-Jones, and the Read Aloud Bible Stories<\/a>, <\/em>by Ella Lindvall, do such a good job of distilling the biblical accounts into a form that speaks to not-so-young me!<\/p>\n

Our kids all grew up on the Read Aloud Bible Stories, <\/em>and now we get to enjoy them along with our grandchildren. <\/em>We call them the “Step-Step Books,” because the phrase “step, step, step” appears over and over in the stories. We still<\/em> love the bold illustrations and the terse, child-like text.<\/p>\n

I was reading the story of Joseph recently with my little Ruby and Virginia:<\/p>\n

\"\"Joseph was happy when his daddy gave him a pretty coat. His brothers weren’t<\/em> happy.<\/p>\n

Joseph was happy on the road to find his brothers tending the sheep. His brothers weren’t<\/em> happy when they saw him coming.<\/p>\n

Joseph’s brothers let some men on camels take him away with them. They took him to a far-away place. “Was Joseph happy?” <\/em>the text reads. “No, but God was there. And God helped him.”<\/em><\/p>\n

Joseph worked for a soldier in the far-away place.\u00a0“Was Joseph happy? No, but God was there. And God helped him.”<\/em><\/p>\n

\"\"The soldier put Joseph in jail.\u00a0“Was Joseph happy? No, but God was there. And God helped him.”<\/em><\/p>\n

Later Joseph worked for the king.\u00a0“Was Joseph happy? No, but God was there. And God helped him.”<\/em><\/p>\n

Eventually Joseph’s father and brothers and all the rest of his relatives came to live in Egypt with him. “Now do you think Joseph was happy?”<\/em> the text asks. God had used Joseph’s suffering to save his whole family!<\/p>\n

We don’t always know what God is doing.<\/strong> Sometimes, from our limited perspective, it doesn’t look like life is making sense, and sometimes it doesn’t look<\/em> very much like God loves us. Sometimes we’re just not very\u00a0happy. <\/em>But\u00a0God is there, and He will help us.<\/strong> Nothing <\/em>separates us from His love, and He is bigger than any trial He takes us through.<\/p>\n

We can still have\u00a0joy, <\/em>even while we’re not happy.<\/p>\n

He is there, and He will help us. <\/strong>How amazing is that?!<\/p>\n

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