{Joy}

Once again I have put off posting anything on here, mostly due to lack of time. Baby #3 (Henri) has been a wonderful part of our lives for 8 1/2 months now and I'm loving him to death. But to be honest, that's now why I'm posting now. I have been doing a lot of thinking about Joy lately. What is true joy and how do we and when do we experience it? 1 Thessalonians 5 v. 16-18 says; "be joyful always, pray continually, give thanks in all circumstances, for this is Gods will for you in Christ Jesus." So the true question is how do we be joyful always? I mean, what does true joy look like? I find "joy" in many things, a lot of them quite silly. A clean bathroom, and organized cabinet, yes, cleaning brings me joy. Watching my children laugh, accomplish something new or just give me a hug and tell me they love me, joy. I know God wants us to take joy in all these things, but I believe there is something more that He wants us to take joy in. It is simple and complicated (at least to me) at the same time. He wants us to take joy in Him. Sounds simple enough. So now, how do we do that? I can take joy in things He has created. In abilities he has given me, but how do I take joy in Him?

So, I'm thinking that in order to do this, for starters, I need to be serving Him more. Going out and being fishers of men. Those that we are able to partake in their being lead to Christ should bring us so much joy. There are so many ways in which I can do this, it's just getting out there and doing it. Why don't I do this more? I do feel fortunate that God has allowed me to have 3 wonderful boys that I get to work on this every day and I do have joy in this! Watching them this morning sitting on my bed, each with his own bible looking at the stories and asking me questions. This bring me true joy. Knowing that God is working in those small boys lives and that he is allowing me to be part of that! I just pray more and more every day for the ability to "be joyful always"! This is just the tip of the iceberg and I pray that God will continue to show me how and can be a part of advancing His kingdom and receiving the eternal joy that is a part of that and seeing the simple and silly joys that God has blessed me with every day!