Joyful

This week’s church sermon was centered around “joy.” I love when a message has me thinking about it all week and looking for ways to incorporate it into my day to day. The pastor’s message focused on finding joy by realizing the constant love God has for each of us. He emphasized that we don’t need to find or make those “special” moments to bring us joy, but that we can instead focus on growing ‘the little seed of joy’ that’s been planted in us by God. We can look for moments throughout each day to feel God’s loving presence, even without these special events, and grow that seed into a big, beautiful, vibrant tree.

During the service I was thinking about an event I had been planning myself. We were having some friends over for a Christmas cookie making / decorating party after church, and I had been planning this event for a couple of weeks. I get so wrapped up in the planning of these parties, trying to make sure we all will have the best time, ourselves and our guests. I do enjoy planning them (even when I get a little obsessive over the details), and we do have fun. I truly felt joyful having friends show up and engage with the kids on a fun activity. It was adorable to see them cut out the sugar cookies and decorate them; they are still so little, and I tried to remember to soak up these beautiful moments.

But this sermon was a good reminder that although these events are special, so are the everyday “mundane” moments. I am joyful that I am alive, well-fed, and my children are healthy. There’s nothing more special in the world than to have our health and each other. But even more than that, we are encouraged to find the joy in the not so great times, which is difficult to do. I am trying to focus on finding the joy, even in the hard moments. How do you find joy, regardless of circumstances?