Do you not just HATE it when you are all pumped up and excited about something or just feeling really good about life in general and then WHAM! you get hit by something or someone that just slurps it right out of you? I mean does it not suck watermelons through a garden hose to be flying high and then with one careless comment or action find yourself in a free-fall?
I went to a women's retreat once and the speaker had a name for the people and things that do that....JOY SUCKERS! A perfect name, don't you think? You can almost picture a leech clinging to your back growing fat as it drains the joy from you.
My family has a real "talent" for being joy suckers. I used to be a very upbeat person, but more and more over the years I've found that whenever I am in a good mood someone in my family will say or do something that instantly drains it from me. Sometimes, I've even wondered if it's that they can't stand to see me happy.
But here's the deal....is it really them or is it me? In his book This Present Darkness Frank Peretti depicts the unseen spiritual warfare that goes on all around us. He presents things like greed, jealousy, joylessness, etc. as twisted, nasty little demons clinging to our backs, sinking their claws into us deeper and deeper until we fight back and break their hold.
So what I find myself wondering is this.....Do I really live with joy suckers or is it that I let them suck my joy? Could I hang on to it? Do I have to lose it because of one comment? Could I diffuse the situations, head them off at the pass, so to speak?
What do you think? How do you deal with life's joy suckers? Me? I try to remember to pray, but it isn't always easy when you're feeling joyless.
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4 comments:
What a great name for miserable people! I also call those types of people, "Energy Vampires"which is really the same thing as "joy suckers". I know the feeling of having family members who detract from your life instead of adding to it. What seems to help a little is setting really good, strong boundaries for myself. Perhaps make a list of what's acceptable and what's not acceptable behavior from others and also become conscious of the expectations you have of others, knowing you can't make them change, but you can choose how you respond which empowers you : )
Nice new digs my friend. Such a different theme from your last one. I like it. Joy Suckers are all over the place. I could bitch slap each and everyone of them to tell you the truth. But hey, that's them. I just try to ignore them cuz if I don't I feel the slap coming on big time LOL
Well, when I can, I avoid them.
When I can't, I turn into Pollyanna. It's frightening really, and then they avoid me!
Wendy, I actually came across the term "psychic vampires" when I did a search. Acceptance, is indeed, the magic cure, I think. It's just really hard to let stuff roll off your back sometimes.
Thom, thanks, I'm glad you like it. I'd love to handle it that way, too, but I don't think I'd like jail.
Ellen, you...Pollyanna? Oh, my! lol
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