As I flipped my own vegetable omelet, I turned behind me and looked at my three year old daughter eating her own plate of scrambled eggs. She was shoveling them in like a garbage truck taking its load. She closed her eyes with each bite and smiled with closed mouth as the food was enjoyed thoroughly, just as much as any food critic might over a surprising delicacy to their palate.
As I turned back to the burner and hot skillet my eyes passed over my one year old plucking pieces of egg and cut up banana enthusiastically from her tray. She shoved handfuls of the mixture into her waiting bird mouth. I looked at my eggy mixture of green peppers, onions, and tomatoes, and I smiled. It wasn’t the thought of my soon to be edible omelet that made my lips curl up. Although I knew it would be fabulous, my happiness came from it all. I felt so full of joy at that moment, standing in my pajamas, hair a mess, and kitchen sink overflowing with last night’s supper dishes. I felt beyond content with it all. The added satisfaction I felt over serving my children breakfast was just an icing on the cake.
I believe joy is obtainable. I believe we were created to experience euphoria naturally. Why else can young love be so intoxicating or a red popsicle on a hot summer day hit the spot so well?
I believe joy is a mindset. I believe it’s a conscious decision you make day after day after day. It’s an attitude you walk in even when the walk becomes so very difficult that you can’t fathom taking another step.
It’s a direction you take even when you don’t know which way to turn.
You just look up.
Joy can be hard to reveal in situations beyond our control, those situations we never saw coming, or never imagined possible.
Those situations that bring us such grief. The situations of loss that make us want to scream Why God? Why?
These moments take the most resolve, an insistence to keep walking, keep moving, a perseverance that may not come right away.
And that’s okay too.
My three year old I spoke of so affectionately above cannot stand to have her hair washed. She absolutely hates it. It’s not so much the shampooing part as it is the rinsing. She can’t tolerate getting water in her eyes.
Today as I fought the battle once again to wash her hair, and once again she whined and cried “no,” I asked her a question.
Baby? Do you think Mommy would purposely hurt you?
She shook her head slowly no.
Then let me do this.
And she did.
She knew my character. She knew my love for her was without boundary. She knew I meant her no harm.
And so she stopped crying.
In the moments, the circumstances where joy is not easy to find, and in fact breathing is almost too much to bear, trust is what will see you through. It’s trusting that He loves you, without borders, and means you no harm.
He loves you.
The creator of the universe, the being who breathed the stars into existence loves you.
If you can somehow find this truth, grab a hold of it like a precious treasure, and hold it closely to your heart not letting it go, then you will find it.
You will find your joy, His joy, His gift to you.
When you can find joy in pain then finding joy in the mundane is second nature.
When you can be happy in the midst of the big stuff it will flood you in the middle of the smallest things.
When you can learn His character, believe it, believe His boundless love, then it will reside in you. The joy.
It won’t be a walk in the park everyday, this walk of joy. It won’t be a friend waiting outside the door to accompany you as you go. It won’t always be that easy.
Some days it’s so hard to find. And some days maybe you’ll feel like you didn’t find it at all.
But it’s always there.
There will be tomorrow, another day to wake up fresh and walk in joy. Walk in the knowledge and peace of being loved, being loved so completely and unconditionally.
When you find it, embrace it. Then you will see it in all things, even in scrambled eggs. You’ll find it in the mundane.