Last Saturday, I blogged about Joy. I have meditated on that blog post quite a bit through the week, and I am happy to report that I have found joy! Here it is, in a happy grandson...
In reconnecting with friends, and in knitting sweaters with built-in pockets for granddaughters who have lots of fun things to keep in those pockets!
Thinking about joy has me also thinking about happiness, specifically my day-to-day happiness level, which is often not very high. If I really stop and think about my circumstances or emotions on any given day, I actually tend toward sad most of the time. Sometimes I am even sad when there is nothing to really be sad about. But given enough quiet time, I can usually find lots of things to be sad about.
Intellectually, I know that this state of mind is depression, and depression is something I have struggled with most of my life. No matter what I do, I seem to have a really hard time sustaining happiness. Still, I can choose joy.
Joy and happiness are so different. Happiness depends entirely on the things outside of me: other people, the weather, the state of my bank account, the number on the scale. Happiness is as fleeting as a butterfly on a sunny day, right here in front of me one moment and gone in the blink of an eye. Joy, as I wrote last week, is a choice we all make. No matter what is going on around me, and even when I cannot control anything that is happening, I can always choose how I respond. There is a song, from my early days as a Girl Scout, that has been running through my head the last few days. Take a listen here, if you like: Brownie Smile Song.
If not, here are the words:
I've got something in my pocket that belongs across my face.
I keep it very close at hand, in a most convenient place!
I know you'd never guess it, if you guessed for a long, long while -
So, I'll take it out and put it on: it's a great-big Brownie smile!
I am glad that song keeps popping into my head. Hearing it, and singing it, make me happy. It is just a happy song. This happy song tells me how to choose joy, and reminds me that joy is no accident.
Joy is something I keep in my pocket, for when things go wrong. When my face wants to cry, or my mouth wants to shout at my circumstances, I know I have joy in my pocket, and that it belongs across my face. I know that there will be bumps in the road, that people will be occasionally (or often) unkind, so I keep it very close at hand, in a most convenient place. In the midst of hard times, joy is an unexpected response. I know you'd never guess that I have it tucked away...so I have to make a choice. I reach down deep to take it out, and put it on, my great-big, 50-year-old Brownie smile!
Sometimes, I do not reach down and put on my Brownie smile. Sometimes I cry. Sometimes, I shout. I have even been known to say a bad word or twenty. Sometimes, I wallow in self-pity and "why me?" for a time, times, and half a time...or so it seems. I forget about the joy in my pocket. That is ok. God gave me a host of emotions, and since he created me in his image, he knows just how I feel.
In hard times, the promise of Psalms 30:5 is so encouraging - JOY comes in the morning! A shout of joy comes in the morning! At morn there is rejoicing! In the morning, we can sing for joy! Because of this promise, I know that my joy is still there, when I am ready. Praise God!
So, wherever you are, check your pocket. If you need a new smile, please take one of mine, and if it has been a while since you put your joy on display, perhaps today is the day!
Thanks for stopping by, and Knit in Good Health!
❤️
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