Oh sweet joy. My word for last year was JOY, and God revealed many things to me as I read and studied about joy. Chapter 9 peeled away many more layers of understanding joy for me.
"Awe ignites joy because it makes us bend the knee."
"The humble live by joy."
~Ann Voskamp
Humility grows gratitude and gratitude yields abundant joy. I love the mental and spiritual connections that Ann makes for us in this book and in particular this chapter. Yes, Jesus gives us joy abundantly. But there are days that I just didn't know how to get there...feeling overwhelmed by circumstances and sometimes just living in the "mundane and ordinary."
And I am learning the first step in everything is bending the knee. Now I know how to get there....start with bending the knee...humbly letting go....receiving with open hand and leaving the hand open. That is what I do....when I am overwhelmed, when my circumstances seem more than I can handle, when I want to put on my running shoes and just go away from the myriad of responsibilities and roles. I start with bending the knee. I have found myself on my knees.....at my children's bedsides, at my own bedside, in the shower as the tears flow and I pour out my heart to my heavenly Father for the lives of my friends with cancer, friends whose babies are in heaven, lost and hurting family and friends, in our schoolroom as I again realize that it is not by my own strength that I educate these precious ones with whom I have been entrusted, at church as God redeems and convicts and pours out His grace. On my knees is where life and peace and this abundant joy is found. Humbly laying it all before my precious Jesus. He knows, oh how He knows....and loves me still.
1 comment:
I need to take a knee...
What a blessing to have a friend who takes one on the behalf of others. You are a treasure. xoxo Melissa
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