On my missions trip to Jamaica,this past year(hard to believe it was only a few months ago already) I noticed that the children at the children's home had joy in the midst of hardship. Sure they had food to eat, a roof over the head,clothes to wear, and so on.
Many of them were abandoned by their parents,or thier parents died, or could not afford to take of them yet they were still joyful! How? They are taught that the LORD Jesus loves them at an early age in life, so they know that they are loved by God! This is an encouragement to them to know that God will never "...leave..." or "...forsake..." them. So they are able to be joyful in spite of their growing up in a home away from family.
This was such a blessing to see!
Also,the year before last (in 2009) my husband had this bad stuff called double pneumonia around Christmas time. It was in his blood stream,which is dangerous. It turned out that this was not the only bad news. To top this off, it was two different types of pneumonia, and the doctors thought he may have gotten H1N1 too. So, he stayed in the hospital for a week to be treated for all this mess while my parents took me to visit him each day, and took turns baby-sitting our son (who is now two years old).
Talk about a hardship. This was a tough time for us all. My husband fought for his life, the doctors did all they could to help, our son was fussy as can be, and at the end of each day I was worn out big time. So,how did I manage to keep from falling apart during all this?
Believe me,it was not easy. I was stressed big time,but I prayed a lot then for God's will to be done, and for him to give me the strength to do right by him in spite of it all. As a result,I surprised myself,I stopped crying myself to sleep as had done at first, and started praising God instead!
Not only this, but I met another lady in the hospital elevator one day. She was going through a similar situation to me. She asked me what to do to avoid losing it. So,I gave her a hug,cried with her a bit,then told her that I prayed for God's will and was relying on him through it all. She said thanks. She needed this reminder,and admitted to being a new Christian who did not know about this.
-See God can give you joy in the midst of hardship if you rely on him through it all!
