JOY FOR THE JOURNEY

Finding joy in the ordinary

Well, the New Year is upon us and we all have great hopes for a shinier, brighter year than we had last year. How many of you made New Year’s resolutions? I have to admit, I have done it many, many times, only to crash and burn. So I began taking the time to put thought into what my life’s motto would be for the year. One year it was; it is easier to make an excuse than it is to make an effort.  Another year my motto was; you are the author of your own happiness! When you make a resolution like this you cannot fail. You aren’t overwhelmed with disappointment that you’re weak and you cannot maintain your enthusiasm you had at the beginning of the year. This year my motto is; finding joy in the ordinary.

I realize how absolutely blessed I am in the fact that I have 21 grandchildren and one great grandchild. Each and every one of these children are different and special in their own way. It is up to me to appreciate how precious they all are.

Many times during the New Year I have promised myself that I would eat healthy, exercise more, and hopefully lose weight. All those things are in my power to do, yet very little results are ever seen. Do you realize that God has given us everything we need to be healthy, wealthy, and successful! The only thing that holds us back is our own weaknesses.

By making my New Year’s resolution finding joy in the ordinary, I have decided to appreciate each and every breath I take. I will not live in fear of Covid, being overweight, growing older, or not having enough money to live in the lifestyle of which I’ve always dreamed. Instead, I intend to find pleasure and joy in the giggle of my great-granddaughter’s laugh, and in the accomplishment of my granddaughter’s artistic abilities. I plan to enjoy the wild imagination of my other granddaughter, and the golfing prowess of my 10-year-old grandson. The list goes on and on, I am rich beyond anyone’s ability to count the blessings that I have received through the grace of Jesus Christ. So I will not be making any outlandish New Year’s resolution that I cannot possibly keep. Instead I will strive to live with the knowledge that I have God’s unconditional love, knowing the closer I come to God the closer he will come to me.

This will not happen by accident, it will take effort on my part to read God’s word every day, to pray for my grandchildren and to stop and smell the roses, enjoy the sunsets and the rainbows along the way.

As parents we often want our children to be perfect, and I think it’s important we realize that is never going to happen. But we can teach them that God has blessed them with everything they will ever need to live a joy filled successful life if they trust in him. We must be the examples and not complain about what we don’t have but thank God every day for what we do have.

We as authors can either write shocking, vile, scary, and obscene works of so-called literature, or we can help people enjoy the read, and be an uplifting source of literature in their life. Let our motto be this year to help people, find joy in the ordinary!

Better is it that thou shouldest not vow, than that thou shouldest vow and not pay. Ecclesiastes 5:5

But above all things, my brethren, swear not, neither by heaven, neither by the earth, neither by any other oath: but let your yea be yea; and your nay, nay; lest ye fall into condemnation. James 5:12

According as his divine power hath given unto us all things that pertain unto life and godliness, through the knowledge of him that hath called us to glory and virtue: II Peter 1:3

 Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, and cometh down from the Father of lights, with whom is no variableness, neither shadow of turning. James 1:17