Always be full of joy in the Lord. I say it again—rejoice! Let everyone see that you are considerate in all you do. Remember, the Lord is coming soon.

Philippians 4:4-5

Are you a joyful person? This weekend we celebrated Thanksgiving with some of our immediate family since planned travel is going to interfere next week. We could have just gone our separate ways this year, but we chose to find a way to make a Thanksgiving memory. It was a good day of food and conversation and time together.

In much the same way, Paul makes it clear in the verses above that we should choose to be joyful in our lives as followers of Christ and evidence of that joy is in the way we interact with others. Like joy, we can choose to kind and thoughtful. So, are we considerate of others? Are we known as someone who is reasonable? Are we gentle? Each of these thoughts are expressed in different translations of that verse.

Finally, remembering the Lord is coming soon keeps everything in perspective. Whether His return happens in our lifetime, our not, we know that the promise of the Lord’s return should affect the way we conduct our lives everyday.

And so we choose to rejoice even when life can sometimes be difficult.