JoY

This post is sort of out of the ordinary, so let me explain a little; our congregation has recently started life-groups and we are currently studying the fruits of the spririt. Our study this month was about joy. The main idea we discussed was that we are commanded to "be joyful", that it's a choice, not a feeling or emotion, that even in the most difficult of circumstances when we are sad and/or grieving we can also be joyful. I've been thinking about that a lot lately, for several reasons, probably primarily because I'm not always that joyful. I don't like to think of myself as a pessimist, but more of a realist:) I may have actually tried to convince myself that I'm joyful even though I don't always act like it. Hmm.. a little contradictory I think. Anyway, in our discussion, we talked about people that we thought were examples of joy, and I'm not a great on-the-spot thinker. But tonight as I was taking a bath, unwinding from a pretty rough weekend, this topic permeated my mind once again, and I kept thinking about Skylar. When I think of the most joyful person I know, it would have to be her. Maybe she is not necessarily choosing joy, I don't know, but either way she is definitely an example of what I think a joyful person should be, and her joyfulness is infectious. I know she is only six, and she hasn't had a lot of hardship to overcome, but this girl is happy to her core. I have never heard her say a negative thing about anybody or anything, she rarely gets upset, and she can always see the bright side of any situation. (Disclaimer: I obviously don't hear everything she says or see everything she does, so this is to the best of my knowledge, and feel free to burst my bubble if necessary.)

For example:
One Monday morning as we were rushing out the door, running late AGAIN, I'm muttering under my breath, throwing my bag in the car, she hops in, buckles her seat belt and beams "Mom, don't you just love Mondays!"

A few weeks ago, after we had been teased with a nice day or two, and were on our way out the door, Kevin made some comment about how dreary and rainy it was, and Skylar says "Well, maybe we'll see a rainbow."

When we have our talk time in the evening, and we ask her about any bad part of her day, she always struggles to think of something, and most of the time she just passes that one.

When I asked her the other night what a good part of her day was, she told me "You let me clean with you all day!"

Those were just a couple of things that came to the forefront of my mind. I think as parents, we try to be good examples and model traits that we would like for our children to possess. However, I think our children often have a lot to teach us. I must say that I could take a few lessons from this bundle of joy!

Well, now I guess I need to work on being a little more joyful. I'm sure you are already "being joyful", but if not, maybe we can be more joyful together.