Choose Joy
I soon made another good friend. Dan Marshall had graduated from Moore High School and was finishing his last year of college in Bozeman. He regularly drove up on his weekends to hunt. There were so many upland game birds that I literally learned how to wing shoot without ever having a lesson or shooting trap at a range. In fact, I went hunting every day after school during the season and shot three pheasants along with sharptail grouse, sage grouse, Hungarian partridge, and occasional ducks and geese.
My take home pay was just $805 dollars per month. My car payment was $238.97, my college loan payment was $150 and my rent and utilities was $300. I drove school bus (as a sub) for $4.50 an hour for a little extra income. After paying my car insurance, I just had enough money left over for gas and shotgun shells... if I was careful.
I'm not sure how I survived financially. As I was not yet a resident, a local rancher gave me a deer, and the cooks at the school spoiled me with extra and excellent food (teachers got free lunch). In fact, when they made homemade cinnamon rolls, the whole school smelled like a bakery and they always brought me early samples hot out of the oven. I loved my students and their families, and I loved teaching in rural Montana.
But seldom in life are all of our "satisfaction" boxes checked. I was single and wanted to be married. I was desperately poor. I was nearly 1,000 miles from family. Life is always a mixture of good and bad, perfection and problems, pleasure and pain. Those who are wise (the fear of the Lord is the BEGINNING of wisdom) find joy in life's small moments. This is critically important for believers because the Word of God tells us that "The JOY of the Lord is our STRENGTH."
Do you want to be stronger? Choose JOY!! it is absolutely a choice. I know that your life isn't perfect. That's true for everyone. Refuse to focus on the negative. Refuse to live in a dark place. Your life is FILLED with beautiful things. Focus on those things, and you will be blessed! -Pastor Brad
Written on July 17, 2025
Posted in Daily Devotions