...that joy comes in many forms.

I have these friends. These friends of mine are a family who listened to a call from God and decided to adopt a baby girl. They recently went overseas to get her. She's home now, and it was decided that she would come with her mom and siblings to church on Wednesday nights. You know, to get acquainted with the people who she would probably grow up around. So I was wandering the halls after youth group, and who should I stumble upon but this family and their new baby.

Let's just say my heart melted immediately.

She's an absolute beauty. She has gorgeous dark skin, a beautiful smile, and the cutest hair on the planet. She was playing catch with her brother, and she would often stop to run back and give her new mom a big smile and even bigger hug.

The absolute joy on her mother's face was like none I have ever seen, and that is the subject of this new blog.

Coming from a girl who's middle name is joy, I can tell you that joy is definitely not the easiest emotion to come across these days. With the ecomony being down, war raging across the Middle East, and prices of basically everything skyrocketing, it's a little hard not to be distracted by the havoc that Satan is wreaking all over the globe. Even optimists are having a hard time putting a positive spin on recent events, and pessimists like me certainly aren't seeing the peace in the midst of these struggles.

Let's take a little verse from James and find out what God's got for us.

"Consider it pure joy, my brothers and sisters, whenever you face trials of many kinds, because you know that the testing of your faith produces perseverance. Let perseverance finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything." -James 1: 2-4

You heard the Word- pure JOY. Now, I'm not saying that when the going gets really tough, as it probably will here in the near future, to think that God is going to drop Himself out of the sky and personally handle all of your problems for you- that wouldn't help you grow. Believe me, I've wished more than once that God would step out of heaven and come to wave His magic wand and make it all better. But at the end of the day, I really just want to look up and say, "Bring it on."

In church last Sunday, another friend of mine spoke some words that I think are an excellent way of living. He said, "I'm not sure if I want my problems to end, because I have never been as close to God as I am now."

I couldn't agree more. And that's pure joy.