The Joy of the Lord

 

Joy, what a wonderful word.  One of my favorite scriptures is found in Nehemiah 8:10

Nehemiah 8:10
Nehemiah said, “… for the joy of the Lord is your strength.”

If you’ve been a Christian for any length of time, you probably have sang that song. You know “The joy of the Lord is my strength, the joy of the Lord is my strength, the joy of the Lord is my strength, Oh the joy of the Lord is my strength.    And then we would sing “If you want joy, you must sing, shout, jump, etc. for it.

I remember when my children were small,  people with older children would tell me to enjoy this season because your children grow up quickly.  And while this advice is true, they do grow up quickly, what do you do if you don’t have joy.

I remember a particularly trying day when my son woke up, had a bowel movement, and smeared it all over himself, his crib, and the wall.  We were meeting someone that day and needless to say we were late.  I had to bathe him, disinfect the bathtub,  his crib, the wall, wash clothes, and clean myself up.  And you know what, that was not a joyful occasion.  But I had to make a choice.  I could be mad and let that ruin my day, or I could stop and  take a deep breathe and choose joy.  Well, it took me a while before I could choose joy.  I wanted to choose anger. I wanted to be discouraged. And to be honest, I kind of wanted to give up on being a mother for a short time.

Well after I cleaned up everything, I hugged my clean baby boy and went on with my day.  And you know what, in the scheme of life, it all worked out. I made it to the meeting and began duck taping his diaper to him so that I never had to deal with that again.

I am happy to report that he outgrew that stage and is a wonderful young man and I can now laugh about it.

The nugget for today is “Choose Joy!” 

My advice for you is to remember that the everyday crisis that go along with mothering are short lived and you will look back and laugh.  But in the meantime, choose joy,