I sit here wondering about the word JOY as I drink hot chocolate out of my JOY mug and look upon my JOY knick knacks. Joy is my favorite word - so much so I named my blog Layton Family JOY. The weeks before Christmas I am giddy with excitement to unwrap our decorations - our JOY ornanments so many I dare not even try to count them or waste the entire day losing track!
I have decorated our home and my life with this word - but I can't help wonder if I have decorated the walls of my heart with it as well?
Joy means - the emotion evoked by well-being, success, or good fortune or by the prospect of possessing what one desires : delight (webster).
What are your desires? Does possessing them bring you joy - or does that mean you raise the bar for the next thing on your list? Does someone else hold the key to your joy?
What if JOY was not the end result? Could we have gotten the equation wrong?! I did not finish my college degree because I could not pass algebra - so maybe that's the problem. But ... what if a+b=joy was wrong? Bonus + well behaved children = JOY? Blog comments + affirmation = JOY? Sadly some have no clue what to plug into their equation and therefore believe the lie that they will never have joy. Others it's as simple as money + security = JOY.
What if the thing we're waiting on - the end result of joy - is already being stored within us waiting to be activated?
you + joy = hope
you +joy = testimony
you + joy = a glorified God
Did you know that in the old testament the trees and mountains are told to "shout for joy" (Psalms). My 7yr old will tell you a tree is a producer - it makes it's own food and gives off oxygen. And yet a tree can shout for joy quicker than I can! Maybe it's not about being a consumer and searching on a wild hunt for JOY ... maybe it does not rely on our outcomes or our current situations. Because we live in a morally decaying world - stuff does not last and people let us down, so why wait on that to bring JOY? Yet God promises to make our joy complete John 15:11 "I have told you this so that my joy may be in you and that your joy may be complete".
Dare we even think that JOY is already alive right now within our hearts - it's just a matter of us allowing it to breathe? Maybe unlocking the secret to joy is really just a choice.
The trees can sing for joy because they are part of God's creation - it's not because of what they get -who they live next to - how happy someone else makes them, or what the day holds -- it's because of what God has allowed them to be. Part of God's plan, part of God's design. You are apart of that too! Put your joy up front and on the other side of the equation don't wait for it - act upon it! Allow your joy to live!
Stef - love this reminder today to not get in the way of the Joy that has been put in my heart! It is there, because He is is. He is joy, and my attitude can, especially when I am worn down, cover it up.
ReplyDeletePraying, just like that gorgeous tree on your site lifts it's branches in joy to the heavens, that today, I will too!
If you look at the verses preceeding and following John 15:11 Jesus tells us how to have joy. He says to remain in His love. How? "If you obey my commands, you will remain in my love.". What are His commands? Love God and love others. Joy is missing when we do just the opposite, which is to focus on self...what do I want? How do I feel about it? What will make me happy? Putting others first with a servant's heart as Jesus did is how to find true joy.
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