Don’t let anyone steal your joy.

People don’t steal our joy as often as we’d like to think. We often give it away.

We erode joy with the way we dwell on something, minimize and avoid it, or make it into something it’s not. We can blame others or we can take responsibility for our own attitudes, facing the truthfulness of the impact we can have—positive and negative.

And sometimes it’s acknowledging the truth of what impact someone else has on us. Finding joy in our situations doesn’t avoid the reality of how a relationship or someone’s behavior impacts us. Joy isn’t deciding to be okay with a situation or person who is not okay. Finding joy isn’t about the situation; it’s about our mindset and focus. God can give us joy even in the midst of chaos and pain. Someone’s choices can put chaos and pain into motion in our lives, and his or her continued choices can make it all seem worse as time passes. Our choice to seek and find joy isn’t about approving of someone’s hurtful behavior but taking responsibility for the boundaries we set and perspective we choose. We get to decide how to proceed, heal, and grow. We get to choose the source of joy. We get to choose the sustainability of joy.

Maybe instead of refusing to let anyone else steal our joy, we need to determine not to steal it ourselves.