December 1, 2011

Joy!

But let all who take refuge in You be glad, Let them ever sing for joy; And may You shelter them, That those who love Your name may exult in You. ~Psalm 5:11

For as long as I can remember, I have loved the word joy. Maybe it's because I grew up hearing my parents say to me, "We named you Heather Joy because Heather means Joyful Spirit and we wanted you to have a double blessing of Joy." Maybe it's because the word conjures up images, sounds, smells, memories that I delight in. Whatever the reason, I love the word Joy. Christmas time always seems a bit brighter when I see Joy decorations and hear people sing Joy to the World. In spite of my love for this word, I do find it hard to be joyful when the trials of life, the dirty dishes, the diapers, the boys squabbling over toys (Yes, 10 month-olds do squabble!), the lay offs. I just need to remember to have joy, to take delight in what I have been given. My boys are so helpful in their little ways to be joyful.

Last Christmas, I received framed letters that spelled out Joy. This was the first Christmas decoration that Beniah wanted to be hung out. As I was working on hanging the frames, Beniah was working on coloring his own joy drawing. It might take some imagination, but you can kind of see his attempt at copying the swirls and curly-cues of the letters.


Every time I go for flour, I am always finding some toy put in the drawer by Elijah. I love opening the flour drawer. This was today's toy.


What brings you joy?
Family Wii night.

1 comment:

Charissa said...

I share so many of the same sentiments for the word "Joy." I don't know if I realized it was your middle name too! My heart always swells when we sing "Joy to the World" and I haven't exactly figured out if I came to love joy because it was part of my given name or if I would just love joy anyway.