Finding Joy in the Journey

I tend to be a serious person.  While I enjoy life, I often do so quietly and although I smile, big displays of emotion are not my style.  Left to myself I can also be much more of the glass half empty type of girls.  A few years ago now I picked up and read One Thousand Gifts by Anne Voskamp.  I was challenged to my core by the need to express thankfulness out loud.  While I felt thankful inside, I often failed to verbalize the specific reasons to myself and most often failed to express those things on the outside to the Lord and to those I loved.  For a while I kept a personal list on my phone, but then I realized that if I didn't include my family in the experience that we would be missing so much.  My children might never know how thankful I was or how much joy I experienced on a daily basis because of all that God does for me.  So began our nightly family tradition of saying what we are thankful for from that day before we do bedtime prayers.  Every one of us (except Oliver for now) takes a turn to say what they are thankful for from that day.  The reasons can be simple or complex, silly or serious, there are no rules except that everyone must think of something.  In the very beginning it was a hard exercise for our children and we had to coax ideas out of them.  But very shortly after they caught on, and now sometimes we have the opposite problem of their list going so long that it endangers bedtime beginning at a reasonable time :-)  That simple exercise changed our family culture and made us much quicker to talk about the good then to rehearse the bad from our days.  


I have the joy of being aquainted with many wonderful people in life who bless me in so many many ways.  But one particular aquaintance has also helped me in this journey, although not in the way you may think.  This person is chronically quick to name the bad, the misfortune, the potential for ill, in any and every situation.  It's would be almost comical if it wasn't so sad.  When you point out something good, or say how wonderful something must be, or how happy they must be about a circumstance, the next sentence it amazingly predictable.  Yes, ........... is great, BUT (insert complaint, whine, and reason that it's not as good as you might think here).  EVERY SINGLE TIME. It's almost as if they are afraid that someone might mistake their life for being easy, or happy, or good and thereby not feel the gravity of their disappointment, exhaustion, busyness, or struggles.  Now you may wonder how this could be helpful to me.  The answer is that it serves as a reminder to me of how I don't want to be.  In fact as I pondered this particular reaction, I found that I wanted the exact opposite.  While I don't want to be fake, and always say that everything is all good whenever someone asks me how I am, I also don't want to ever let people leave my presence and not know that I am thankful.  Even when times are at their hardest, I have SO MUCH to be thankful for.  The deep joy that I have received from the Holy Spirit and my relationship with Jesus can and should spill out into even the darkest of days.  So I have purposed in my heart to be the opposite.  No matter what struggle I share, or disappointment I may discuss, I want to leave every conversation with a praise.  That even though......... is hard, I am thankful because............   


I don't do this perfectly.  I have so much room to grow.  Some days I fail miserably and walk away from a conversation realizing I have complained and only that.  I am ashamed in those moments and thankful for Gods grace to try again.  But by that grace I am committed to leave my conversations with a thankful note consistently.  I want that to be my habit.  When people hear my name, I hope that they don't remember the things that I am struggling with, or the disappointments in my life, but I hope that they remember that I could always find a reason for joy.  That there was always some reason to be thankful spilling out of my lips.  I have a long way to go, but recently I realized that's it's not nearly as hard as it used to be.  From my heart it is becoming my habit to name first to myself and then to others a reason that I can still be thankful even when and especially when I am discouraged.  This practice of giving thanks really has changed me along the way.  My heart is quicker to trust and less likely to feel fear because the realities of what God has done and has promised to do are close in my heart and my mind.  It is my habit to rehearse them daily.  



That is why my husband's message this morning was so precious to me.  We were reading in Psalm 126 and the topic was "Finding Joy in the Journey".  As he spoke I was reminded again that joy is mine because of all that Christ has done for me and all that He promises to do for me.  No matter the difficulty of the day or the bleakness of the immediate future, the riches of heaven are mine in Christ Jesus.  Then on top of all of this is the wonderful and excessive wealth of family and friends and health that I have received.  The list after that is endless: a home, a job, food, clothing, a car, flowers on the trees, the nearby ocean, the internet to contact my family...........and on and on the list goes with no end in sight.  That's not even to mention the list of things that I can be thankful DIDN'T happen today.  There are so many things that God protects us from on a daily basis that we don't even notice.  Just in this one day the list of things for which I can and should be thankful is almost infinite. I am so thankful that this scripture is true.  There is really and truly joy in the journey of life when our eyes and hearts are tuned to see Him.   

So our family verse for this week is Psalm 126:3 "The Lord has done great things for us; we are GLAD!"  So simple and so profoundly true.  

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