Do you have happiness?

This week I am exploring happiness.  What it is, how to get it, and what can rob it from us. 

Part I

I was with some other homeschool mommas last week and one smiled about a little girl of almost 9 that was running and so happy.  She said something about how nice that was, and it made me think about why we seem to be lacking happiness in our society.  Lets face it, we aren't very happy.  Why is that? 



John 16:27
May the God of hope fill you with all
joy and peace as you trust in him,
so that you may overflow with
hope by the power of the Holy Spirit.

We should be able to be happy, we really should.  Why aren't we?  Ok, you wanna know the down and dirty reason why I think we aren't?  If you don't want to face some cold hard realities, you better leave now.  This isn't going to be a warm and fuzzy post about how to get in touch with your feelings.  I am attacking the bull by the horns.  You have been warned...

Still here?  If you are still reading it must mean you have looked at your garden and found some weeds that just refuse to leave.  You have looked at your inner most self and seen room for change, and want to cross this bridge with me.  Yes, I am in need of an overhaul as well.  Simplification is not easy.  No one ever said it would be, it hurts sometimes.  Real bad. 



Why can't we still have some of the joy we had in childhood?  Granted, when we "grow up" we do get handed some pretty tough obligations and realities, but does that mean our joy gets zapped out of our bodies?  It must, because so many of us lack real joy in our every day life. 

Psalms 47:1 says, Clap your hands, all peoples! Shout to God with loud songs of joy!
 

There are somethings we can't change, but one thing we can change, without a doubt, is how we view the world.  Even a staunch glass half empty party pooper can become a bit lighter and seek more joy.  Those momma's amazed and wistful for the joy of childhood can regain that again.  At least the love of life that such happiness is...

Step one:  Smile and practice LOVE.  Love doesn't come easy once you grow up.  Sometimes we show little love even to those we do love with wild abandon.  So show it.  Do acts of kindness each day.  Remind your husband (or wife) that they mean the world to you.  I don't mean to pick on the men, but  men are commanded to love their wives.  I think we women are more readily free with the words and even gestures toward our spouse (although it can certainly be a bag of mixed signals when one moment we are full of adoration and the next our eyes seethe with wrath...).  Ladies, be slow to anger toward our husbands and our children. 

If there's one thing that will kill love off quicker than molasses in July its a hard and vengeful heart.  One thing I am still learning after all these years, but want to share still, is that men have a different language.  They honestly do.  They have been hard wired differently than we women have.  It doesn't make them bad, it doesn't make us better, it just makes us different and hopefully complimentary to each other.  My own family is proof of this.  Where I am quick to speak and hot tempered at times, my husband is a calm leveling spirit.  He thinks about things differently too.  I have trouble sometimes not dwelling on small facts and nuances of something and he can find common ground in a situation.  He views things with a different slant and from a different angle than I do.  I want you to open the door to seeing things from the male side once in awhile.  Trust me, if you do, you will recapture some joy in your home.  It might not be the only key, but it is a key. 

“Joy is the serious business of Heaven.”

~~C. S. Lewis

 

God loves us to be filled with joy, just like that little girl, and we can.  Not only can we, but we should.