Rejoice in the Lord Always!

Yesterday was a long hard day at work. From the minute I walked in the door to the minute I left an hour and a half after closing I was stressed out and a little frustrated to say the least. About five hours into my day at work, one of the technicians who is not a believer walked up beside me and said "Smile, Grace. The day is half over." I immediately was overwhelmed with conviction of my attitude and thoughts. I had let the 'troubles' of life get in the way of my walk with Christ and it showed to the non-believers I am trying to reach every day. I pray that my attitude yesterday does not hinder the non-believers I work with from seeing Christ despite me.
On my lunch break I sat in my car and prayed and I remembered a passage from Francis Chan's book Crazy Love that I will share with you. Be careful in reading any further, especially if you are a type a personality like me that tends to get 'stressed' over life's little things, because this will hurt your little sensitive toes.

"I used to believe that in this world there are two kinds of people: natural worriers and naturally joyful people. I couldn't really help it that I was the worrying kind. I'm a problem solver, so I have to focus on things that need fixing...
"But then there's that perplexing command: 'Rejoice in the Lord always. I will say it again: Rejoice!' Phil 4:4. You'll notice that it doesn't end with "...unless you're doing something extremely important." No, it's a command for all of us, and it follows with the charge, 'Do not be anxious about anything' v. 6...
"When I am consumed by my problems-stressed out about my life, my family, my job-I actually convey the belief that I think the circumstances are more important than God's command to always rejoice. In other words, that I have a 'right' to disobey God because of the magnitude of my responsibilities.
"Worry implies that we don't quite trust that God is big enough, powerful enough, or loving enough to take care of what's happening in our lives.
"Stress says that the things we are involved in are important enough to merit our impatience, our lack of grace toward others, or our tight grip of control.
"Basically these two behaviors communicate that it's okay to sin and not trust God because the stuff in my life is somehow exceptional."

God is good and I had the opportunity last night to apologize to the technician for my sour expression earlier in the day. I was able to tell him of the goodness of God and how I know that nothing is too big for God to handle.
I pray that I will be obedient to His command to rejoice and not be anxious. I pray that I will lean on Him and trust Him fully in every aspect of my life, even in the 'little things'. I pray that I will be more focused on spreading the gospel than anything else during my time on this earth.