(Photo Creds: We Heart It)
I love the JOY of this picture. I’ll never forget the first real snow my dog experienced years ago. She ran, galloped, rolled and literally jumped INTO THE JOY. This is our opportunity this week. It’s Advent week three and the theme is JOY.
As Christians, we begin to let the season sneak into our hearts. No matter your faith, we all find ourselves singing along to favorite Christmas songs… ‘Baby it’s cold outside,’ ‘Mary did you know,’ Mariah Carey’s ‘All I want for Christmas is you,’ and the ol’ faithful songs like ‘O Holy Night.’
Those famous lyrics seem to GENERATE JOY and a feeling that something “is different” about today – about the season we are in. It IS DIFFERENT. It’s special.
As you go into your week, my prayer is that you will not only find JOY AROUND EVERY CORNER, but that you will EMBRACE the reason for this season.
For those who want to go deeper, the following is the Prayer of Peace of St Francis of Assisi (St. Francis is one of the most venerated religious figures in Roman Catholic history (had to look that one up). Even though this was written likely in the late 1100s, it stands true today.)
Lord, make me an instrument of your peace.
Where there is hatred, let me sow love.
Where there is injury, pardon. Where there is discord, union. Where there is doubt, faith.
Where there is despair, HOPE.
Where there is darkness, LIGHT.
Where there is sadness, JOY.
O Divine Master,
grant that I may not so much seek to be consoled as to console;
to be understood, as to understand;
to be loved, as to love;
For it is in giving that we receive.
It is in pardoning that we are pardoned,
and it is in dying that we are born to eternal life.
HAVE AN AMAZING WEEK!