Friday, June 27, 2014

On Joy in the Home

How would a visitor describe your home?  How would your children describe your home?  How would your husband describe your home?

By God's grace, all three of these questions would be answered with a description that includes the words, "full of joy."  One of the most important things you can do to build your house is to work hard to make it a joyful home.

Joy from Flickr via Wylio
© 2010 John Taylor, Flickr | CC-BY | via Wylio
A home that is full of joy is a display of the gospel.  It is a foretaste of the future joy that we are to experience in Heaven, a taste of the joy that comes from knowing God.

A home that is full of joy is obedient to the repeated commands of scripture to be joyful.

A home that is full of joy rejects the enemy's lie that God isn't good, that pleasure is bad and that joy can wait until Heaven.

A home that is joyful is full of the Holy Spirit, as true joy cannot come apart from the Spirit.

But this doesn't mean that working for joy isn't hard work.

Making a joy filled home is work for me.  As a recovering curmudgeon, my natural bent is towards frugality and stoicism.  Joy takes too much energy, too much time, and too much money.  I want to reserve these things for more important work, for Kingdom work!  But, alas, working for joy IS kingdom work.

"When the Lord restored the fortunes of Zion,
we were like those who dream.
  Then our mouth was filled with laughter,
and our tongue with shouts of joy;
then they said among the nations,
“The Lord has done great things for them.”
 The Lord has done great things for us;
we are glad." Psalm 126:1-3

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