Think You Can Hold Up?: Great Joy!

The last two days our Powell Family Advent activity had to be quick ones. Jack had his youth orchestra concert on Monday, both boys were in the Strings in Schools concert last night, and we were putting the finishing touches on a couple of projects (bleck!) that the boys had due, so we didn't get to enjoy the fun until time for bed. Monday night, we all crawled up in the big bed and enjoyed a story together and last night it was Chocolate Chip Peppermint Milkshakes from the ChickfilA! Yay and YUM!

This lovely picture book, written by Kate DiCamillo, one of my favorite children's book authors, is precious and was my choice for our family bedtime story on Monday night.

I'd shared it with my book club at our December meeting a couple of weeks ago and decided that my family would love it, too. It's called Great Joy, and it's about a little girl, Frances, who is sad to watch the organ grinder and monkey on the corner stand in the cold day after day. She wants to invite them to dinner, but her mom says no, so instead, as they rush past them on the way to church, she hollers an invitation to the Christmas pageant. In the play at church, Frances is the angel that brings the news of Jesus' birth, but she can't seem to get her line out - she's SO SAD and worried for the organ grinder and monkey that she can't seem to say her words. Then, suddenly, the old man walks through the back doors of the church, and Frances is so proud. She raises her little hands and proclaims,

"BEHOLD! I bring you tidings of GREAT JOY!"

And then the book says,

"And, because the words felt SO RIGHT, Frances says them again,

Great Joy!"

That got me thinking. Christmas certainly, CERTAINLY is a time of GREAT JOY. There's family and music and good food and gatherings and presents and traditions and parties and holiday specials. There is SO MUCH to be happy about during the holidays, but, not everyone experiences GREAT JOY during this time. There are people I know who have lost loved ones in the last month, parents who are watching their children fight heart problems or cancer in intensive care units, folks who need help if Santa is to visit..... the list goes on and on. Just as there is reason for GREAT JOY, there's reason NOT, too.

Life has seasons of GREAT JOY and life has seasons of great hardship. So, I think in the times when things are going well, we must NOT take JOY for granted. Don't miss it. Has your JOY been ROBBED lately because of the busyness of the season or the traffic in town or the grumpy (and probably VERY TIRED) salesperson or cause the milkshake machine is broken and you have to drive across town to the other ChickfilA? Yep. Me, too.

Our JOY can be robbed of us....... IF WE LET IT.

There ARE times when joy eludes us, times of much sadness and difficulty..... moments when joy is just NOT an immediate option.

But for many of us, we really have nothing to be sad about. We lose our joy because we CHOOSE to dwell on other things.

Things like.....It's only Tuesday, but Joe and I are already tired. We just wave at each other in the kitchen in the morning as we both run around like nut cases getting stuff together for that day, text each other with the plans and needs for that evening, run here, deliver kids there, somebody needs popsicles for their Mercury presentation in Science and somebody else signed up for donuts for their Strings party. Max needs to wear his bathing suit to school AGAIN (don't ask) and Jack's tux needs to be pressed. Mary has stored her pizza crust in the ice bucket that houses her princess toys and Max thinks we've put Buddy's collar on "death mode" cause the red light is blinking and he won't stop worrying about it. Both boys are irritated that they have to take tests before the holidays, Mary is opening the presents as fast as I can get them wrapped, and there is a "processing delay" with my Christmas cards.

But, even in the midst of that.... I can find my way back to JOY if I want to..... For example: My terrible, awful, no good, very bad vacuum won't clean up the granola bar crumbs that are ALL OVER my living room floor. Why are there granola bar crumbs all over the living room floor? Because Mary likes granola bars and ate one in the living room and made a mess. Why is Mary eating in the living room? Because she lives here and has made herself VERY comfortable. Why does Mary live here? Because this is her HOME. Why is this her home? Because the Lord MIGHTILY BLESSED us this summer when, through the miracle of adoption, we brought this precious child home and she became part of our family. See? I'm smiling now. Started out with that darn vacuum and ended up with the joys of adding a daughter to our family. You can almost ALWAYS trace things back to JOY.

So today, I'm choosing JOY. GREAT JOY. Because I have no reason not to......

I'm choosing to focus on THIS: