Practice Joy
Joy needs to be practiced.
That statement got my attention.
How can one “practice” joy?
The dictionary states that
joy is a vivid emotion of pleasure and extreme gladness.
To be joyful is to be grateful,
to appreciate deeply,
to have something of great value,
and to know one is fully and completely loved.
I believe that joy is a relational, positive experience.
I cannot feel joy without the involvement of another in my life.
There is an awareness of something I cannot provide for myself.
Joy is dependent on another, a benefactor.
Joy is what I experience
when I am overwhelmed with emotion,
when I see a beautiful butterfly,
or experience the quietness and the first big snowfall,
when I realize that the words that I read in Scripture
are relevant to my situation today,
when God’s promise of His presence with me
always means even in pain and confusion,
when I see others growing and learning,
when I have tiny hands wrap themselves around my neck
and call me “Grandma,”
when another has been absent, and we have re-connected.
Joy is something that I can’t evoke for myself.
It is based on the action of another,
God or one of His special servants.
It is a deep awareness of God’s attentive care
and a knowing that He is the source of all that I need.
By Teila Charles Leighty