{"id":7859,"date":"2019-01-23T22:00:19","date_gmt":"2019-01-24T02:00:19","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/sonderbooks.com\/sonderquotes\/?p=7859"},"modified":"2019-01-23T22:00:20","modified_gmt":"2019-01-24T02:00:20","slug":"rejoice-always","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sonderbooks.com\/sonderquotes\/?p=7859","title":{"rendered":"Rejoice Always"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"400\" height=\"533\" src=\"https:\/\/sonderbooks.com\/sonderquotes\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/01\/Mason-16.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-7860\" srcset=\"https:\/\/sonderbooks.com\/sonderquotes\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/01\/Mason-16.jpg 400w, https:\/\/sonderbooks.com\/sonderquotes\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/01\/Mason-16-225x300.jpg 225w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 400px) 100vw, 400px\" \/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>If you&#8217;re unhappy now, don&#8217;t fret or feel guilty about it.  Guilt and worry only perpetuate misery.  Instead, be happy.  Change your mind about the outrageous impracticality of this advice.  If the Bible says &#8220;Rejoice always,&#8221; there must be something to it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>But you object:  &#8220;I can&#8217;t be happy, because I&#8217;m sick,&#8221; or &#8220;I can&#8217;t be happy because my husband left me,&#8221; or &#8220;I can&#8217;t be happy, because I&#8217;m sad.&#8221;  Don&#8217;t you understand?  Happiness is the very weapon you need to surmount all these conditions.  Happiness doesn&#8217;t come to those who sit around waiting until life gets better.  Happiness comes to those who grab hold of its proffered hand in order to rise up and conquer their struggles.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>&#8212; Mike Mason, <em><a href=\"http:\/\/www.sonderbooks.com\/Nonfiction\/champagne_for_the_soul.html\">Champagne\u00c2\u00a0for\u00c2\u00a0the\u00c2\u00a0Soul<\/a><\/em>, p. 130<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Photo: South Riding, Virginia, February 22, 2015<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>If you&#8217;re unhappy now, don&#8217;t fret or feel guilty about it. Guilt and worry only perpetuate misery. Instead, be happy. Change your mind about the outrageous impracticality of this advice. If the Bible says &#8220;Rejoice always,&#8221; there must be something to it. But you object: &#8220;I can&#8217;t be happy, because I&#8217;m sick,&#8221; or &#8220;I can&#8217;t [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[21,8,9,10],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-7859","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-healing","category-joy","category-life","category-trials"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sonderbooks.com\/sonderquotes\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7859","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sonderbooks.com\/sonderquotes\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sonderbooks.com\/sonderquotes\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sonderbooks.com\/sonderquotes\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sonderbooks.com\/sonderquotes\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=7859"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/sonderbooks.com\/sonderquotes\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7859\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7861,"href":"https:\/\/sonderbooks.com\/sonderquotes\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7859\/revisions\/7861"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sonderbooks.com\/sonderquotes\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=7859"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sonderbooks.com\/sonderquotes\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=7859"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sonderbooks.com\/sonderquotes\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=7859"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}