I have recently been pondering the subject of joy. I came across a sermon from Charles Spurgeon addressing this topic. It was such an encouragement that I want to share a few parts of it here:

“‘Rejoice in the Lord,’ says the apostle. In the first place, this is a very delightful thing. What a gracious God we serve, who makes delight to be a duty, and who commands us to rejoice! Should we not at once be obedient to such a command as this? It is intended that we should be happy. That is the meaning of the precept, that we should be cheerful; more than that, that we should be thankful; more than that, that we should rejoice. I think this word “rejoice” is almost a French word; it is not only joy, but it is joy over again, re-joice. You know re usually signifies the reduplication of a thing, the taking it over again. We are to joy, and then we are to re-joy.

You are commanded to rejoice, brethren, because this is for your profit. Holy joy will oil the wheels of your life’s machinery. Holy joy will strengthen you for your daily labour. Holy joy will beautify you, and, as I have already said, give you an influence over the lives of others. It is upon this point that I would most of all insist, we are commanded to rejoice in the Lord. If you cannot speak the gospel, live the gospel by your cheerfulness; for what is the gospel? Glad tidings of great joy; and you who believe it must show by its effect upon you that it is glad tidings of great joy to you.

Sometimes, brethren and sisters, you cannot rejoice in anything else, but you can rejoice in the Lord; then, rejoice in Him to the full. Do not rejoice in your temporal prosperity, for riches take to themselves wings, and fly away. Do not rejoice even in your great successes in the work of God. Remember how the seventy disciples came back to Jesus, and said, ‘Lord, even the devils are subject unto us through thy name,’ and he answered, ‘Notwithstanding in this rejoice not, that the spirits are subject unto you; but rather rejoice, because your names are written in heaven.’ Do not rejoice in your privileges; I mean, do not make the great joy of your life to be the fact that you are favoured with this and that external privilege or ordinance, but rejoice in God. He changes not. If the Lord be your joy, your joy will never dry up. All other things are but for a season; but God is for ever and ever. Make him your joy, the whole of your joy, and then let this joy absorb your every thought. Be baptized into this joy; plunge into the deeps of this unutterable bliss of joy in God.

But also take care that you rejoice in the Lord when you have other things to rejoice in. When he loads your table with good things, and your cup is overflowing with blessings, rejoice in him more than in them. Forget not that the Lord your Shepherd is better than the green pastures and the still waters, and rejoice not in the pastures or in the waters in comparison with your joy in the Shepherd who gives you all. Let us never make gods out of our goods; let us never allow what God gives us to supplant the Giver. Shall the wife love the jewels that her husband gave her better than she loves him who gave them to her? That were an evil love, or no love at all. So, let us love God first, and rejoice in the Lord always when the day is brightest, and multiplied are the other joys that he permits us to have.”

This last paragraph stood out to me especially. In times when God’s blessings are abundant, it is so important to not make “gods out of our goods” – something I can be quite guilty of. I have also struggled with having “superficial joy” which fluctuates based on circumstances. Other people will let us down, beauty will fade, earthly riches will diminish, but the Lord never changes.The Bible is clear about rejoicing in the Lord. 

I love these verses from Psalm 51:

Create in me a clean heart, O God,
and renew a right spirit within me.
Cast me not away from your presence,
and take not your Holy Spirit from me.
Restore to me the joy of your salvation,
and uphold me with a willing spirit.

So, fellow believers, let’s pray for the grace to rejoice in the Lord ALWAYS, though all seasons of life. When we are weary, let us bring our burdens to Him, and when our lives overflow with blessing, let us praise the Giver of those blessings, that our joy may be full and complete in Christ alone.

It’s the time…

to make summer plans

to see the flowers bud and bloom:

to go on long walks

to bask in the sunshine

to work, to play

to officially graduate from high school

to have my senor pictures taken:

to study hard

to sweep up old leaves from last fall

to weed the landscaping

to play frisbee with the boys outside

to eat lunch out on the deck

to run 5ks

to play memory match on quiet kid evenings at home while snacking on fruit loops :)

to read my Bible and other good books in the stillness of the morning

to keep the windows open and invite the sunshine and fresh breeze inside

to play volleyball in the front yard

to anticipate have only 3 more weeks of school to go 

to celebrate the 11th birthday of this handsome young man:

to mow the lawn

to see the trees begin to bud

to meet a friend for coffee

to eat delicious biscuits made by Austin:

to watch Dr. Who with Wesley

to study some more ;)

to attend wedding showers and be privileged to witness the joy of friends getting married

to lace up my running shoes and hit the road/treadmill

to find this in my room (I wonder who that could be…)

to enjoy being a daughter at home

to love each other

to be thankful for each blessed day

to live in the moment

life is sweet. God is so good to give us the different seasons of life, each with different joys, trials and challenges. I want to appreciate more the season God has placed me in right now, making the most of each and every day….because the seasons will continue to change over time. 

Our family just got back from a delightful and much-anticipated vacation to Florida over spring break! It’s wonderful to be home again, and I’m planning to blog more consistently in the future. I have been concocting all sorts of ideas for upcoming posts. :) But first I’ll write a bit about our trip.

So we set off on our grand adventure last Sunday and drove pretty much the entire day. We stopped at a hotel in Mississippi overnight. It was interesting to see the different changes as we drove farther south. You know you’re really down south when the gas stations sell pickled pigs feet and boiled peanuts. No joke.

Because it’s off-season, Mom found a great bargain at a condo-type place for us to stay near the coast in Destin, Florida. It was colder than usual in Destin the week we were there, but the ocean was magnificent. The night we arrived it was quite windy with large waves. We saw at least a dozen surfers out there as well. After unpacking and settling in, we decided to take a walk along the beach. I’d intended to only observe the water, perhaps dip a foot in that first time, but my brothers and I found wadding in it irresistible and ended up getting pretty wet. :) Thank goodness we had a dryer!

The guys and I enjoyed collecting shells along the beach – I was surprised at how many there were! I tried photographing a few on the beach:

On the second afternoon, Mom, Daddy, and I decided to take a long run along the beach. With our travels I hadn’t run or really moved for a few days, so it felt great. And it was one of the prettiest runs I’ve ever been on, as we ran right along the shoreline.

We enjoyed a BEAUTIFUL sunset on Tuesday.

My brothers made lots of sand sculptures and dug large pits in the sand. Austin and Jonathan dug two huge pits connected by a tunnel. After we had gone up to our room, it was funny to watch from the window and see people’s reactions when they walked by those holes. They always stopped and some people actually got in and crawled through the tunnel.

We celebrated Jonathan’s 11th birthday on Wednesday with vanilla ice cream and orange sherbet. :) We also visited an army air force museum, which was interesting.

There were lots of different types of aircrafts. This was one of Jonathan’s favorites.

On Friday morning we packed up and drove home. It was a blessing to be able to spend time together, and I am grateful for the memories we made. I enjoyed the quiet walks along the beach, running, watching the Beverly Hillbillies as a family, enjoying the scenery as we drove, the good meals Mom made for us, hunting for shells, watching movies and reading books together.

Now the end of spring break is rapidly approaching, and it’ll be time to get out my textbooks and tackle the next half of the semester. I’m looking forward to it. Well, folks, it is a beautiful Saturday morning, and I have some more unpacking to do, so I’ll say goodbye for now.

Thank you for dropping by, and have a lovely weekend!