“Thank you for bringing my family to me.
Thank you for joy.
And I love my dog Izzie.”
This was part of my youngest daughter’s prayer one night
last week. It had been a joyless few
days and hearing it was a bit like having the air knocked out of me. It hurt like the dickens for a second and
then I could take a prayerful breath, deeper than I had in a while.
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| My Baby Girl finding joy in the rain today. |
This is always a tricky time of year for me and I hadn’t been taking very good care of myself (in a bunch of
ways, as indicated by the use of the word “dickens”). The effects of my
dry spirit and tired body were wreaking havoc on my frayed emotions.
(For
example I went running that morning and as I opened up my running app it said something
along the lines of “welcome – your last run was 26 days ago”. When I launched into defense mode including a
lecture TO MY IPHONE about how hot it’s been and an (exaggerated) list of the number of times I ran on the treadmill
that she knows nothing about….I realized I just needed to get moving before my
emotions got the best of me and I ended up finishing off the box of Reese’s
pieces I had started the night before.)
I digress….badly.
As I ran my daughter’s prayer encouraged me. And when I say it encouraged me what I mean
is that it gave me courage, inspired courage in me. For a lot of reasons that are mostly selfish I had forgotten that joy is a gift to be thankful for, but it is also a choice.
And sometimes a choice that takes a lot
of courage.
“…we who have fled [to Him] for refuge....have
mighty indwelling strength and strong encouragement to grasp and
hold fast the hope appointed for us and set before [us].” Hebrews 6:18 AMP
So be encouraged, encourage another.
Choose Joy.
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