Laynie Lessons: Finding Joy

I love to get pics on my phone from friends.  Especially ones like this one.

There is nothing about this picture I don't love.  Lawson's pure abandonment of joy.  His mom's text to me read, "If I were to open my heart for the world to see what's inside...And an inkling of the praise I pour out to God, It could be pretty much summed up like this."  

Good way to start a Monday.  

Joy is tough to find sometimes.  Joy is pretty much a decision.  I'm reading Jan Pace's facebook entries every day, as she is watching her beloved daughter, Laurann, die to cancer.  Slowly and painfully, she is ebbing away.  Most days my eyes fill with tears when I read her brave, beautiful mama's posts... but today I smiled, because she wrote.... "Right now I am cracking up at Laurann.  She must be having a wonderful time in that dream she is having."   Joy.  In the midst of pain, and heartbreak, Jan chooses to find JOY.

I remember the night before we lost Laynie, we pulled all her photo albums, and photo books, and everything we had about Laynie, and we relived it all.  We laughed, we cried, we snorted...we found JOY in the midst of pain and sorrow.  And the reason we found JOY, was because we asked God to find it for us.  To help us and to shield us, and He gave us joy.

Don't let everyday life overwhelm you.  God will give you Joy, all you have to do is ask.  There is NOTHING bigger than God's love for you.

Absolutely nothing.

Start with Joy.  Seek it, be it, live it.    JOY.