Joy and happiness

A request from one of my support crew - here ya go Jewle.
*But first - I wanted to throw this in - I know - I missed adding the "He made the boxes" reference, and... The other is another lesson ;)*

One day I was having fellowship with my good friend and teacher Everett, and in the scripture we were studying were the words happiness and a short time later the word Joy. Written just like that, happiness then Joy. Everett stopped us for a moment and asked me, "what is the difference between happiness and Joy?" His eyes smiling, because he knew, and knew it would be a good lesson for me, I thought about it and said I didn't know. Everett said "happiness happens by happenstance - Joy is grace from the Father." He went on, "It's easy to be happy with the Lord when everything is going good, but how do you have Joy? By praising Him when things aren't so good, that's when we really NEED to praise Him. That is His glory, that is His sacrifice through praise."

About a week later I got to find out just what he was talking about - trying to replace the brakes on my car - and the pads were the wrong size and I couldn't exchange them, cd-burner on my new laptop going out, the car insurance company taking everything I had in my bank account and leaving me overdrawn. All Joyful events, I was mindful of the Lord and truly praised Him at each turn. Joy.

It's easy to praise when you are getting all you want, but are you a fair weather friend?