JOY

I’ve always loved to laugh. For what seemed like a LONG season, the REAL laughter was gone. Yes, I would laugh but it was shallow at best. There were bright times when I smiled and felt pleasant when something good was happening but, it still didn’t run “deep”.

Recently, my daughters and I were home, watching tv. It was a normal day-nothing particularly special happening when, the girls said something, I had one thought and it seemed like a dam burst and I began to laugh. I laughed out loud, I lost my breath, tears came to my eyes, I laughed a long time. I was laughing so hard I could barely talk and in the midst of all that, it felt like I saw parts of my life/story pass through my mind. I felt a “freedom” and a “liberty” as I laughed and I KNEW it was a laugh that came from DEEP within–WAYYYYY DOWN…The word “JOY” popped up. I was not only laughing at the thought and what the girls had said but, it was a pure JOY and contentment that I hadn’t felt in a long time. As I laughed, I saw when I had cried, I saw when my daughters had cried. I saw when we were angry. I saw us when everything was falling apart and……..I saw us all LAUGH. I saw the goodness of God. I saw us all SMILING. I saw us HAPPY, CONTENT, HEALED and I KNOW I’m living in that moment…NOW. It was not that I was just realizing it, I felt like it was a different “level”  and a deeper revelation of it. A significant sign and decree of….DEEPER JOY and PEACE. Of God showing me how COMPLETELY the season has changed, how far He’s bought us, how different our life is NOW compared to when everything was just the opposite. In the moments when I began to regain my composure, I looked at each of my daughters faces and how “bright” and “light” they looked, how all I saw was their smiles. Their smiles make me smile. Their laughter makes me laugh. Yes, they are grown but, I still see significant CHANGE when I look in their eyes and my heart took flight. All of this happened in a matter of a few minutes and I was so overcome with thankfulness.

I typed all of that to encourage someone that your season WILL change. Things WILL get better. God has a plan for your life and you’re SAFE with HIM. No season lasts forever. No storm lasts forever and your pain won’t either. You’ll heal, you’ll move on and you’ll laugh and love again without reservations. God is a restorer. And, one more awesome thing about Him is that your latter WILL be greater. It will be BETTER than you ever imagined. I’m a witness and the better is just getting started. Just hang on to HIM and DON’T LET GO as you’re on your journey!

Joel  2: 25a  And I will restore to you the years that the locust hath eaten

 Romans 15:13 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.

Ecclesiastes 3:1-8

To every thing there is a season, and a time to every purpose under the heaven:

2 A time to be born, and a time to die; a time to plant, and a time to pluck up that which is planted;

3 A time to kill, and a time to heal; a time to break down, and a time to build up;

4 A time to weep, and a time to laugh; a time to mourn, and a time to dance;

5 A time to cast away stones, and a time to gather stones together; a time to embrace, and a time to refrain from embracing;

6 A time to get, and a time to lose; a time to keep, and a time to cast away;

7 A time to rend, and a time to sew; a time to keep silence, and a time to speak;

8 A time to love, and a time to hate; a time of war, and a time of peace.