June 21 - Real Joy

Happy Thursday to you! Yesterday was Silver Dollar City Day. It was cool and rainy day but we made it a day anyway. I think the most impressive thing was that Mia and Gracie refused to let the cold day keep them from their favorite ride, the Lost River (a wet one). They have great memories of riding it with their Papa and they didn’t want the day to pass without getting on it. So alas, before we left the two of them were soaked! 


Cold, dripping wet, but laughing, having a great time, and making memories, I thought of the Psalmist saying “Wash me and I will be clean!” Those girls looked like they had been through the laundry!


“Purify me from my sins, and I will be clean; wash me, and I will be whiter than snow. Oh, give me back my joy again; you have broken me— now let me rejoice...Create in me a clean heart, O God. Renew a loyal spirit within me. Do not banish me from your presence, and don’t take your Holy Spirit from me. Restore to me the joy of your salvation, and make me willing to obey you.”

‭‭Psalms‬ ‭51:7-8, 10-12‬ ‭NLT‬‬


The joy those little girls had in that moment is the joy David was speaking about here. After he had sinned greatly, he wanted to know once again what it felt like to be unencumbered by the weight of guilt and separation from his God—to feel the presence of the Holy Spirit and the sheer joy that only communion with our Heavenly Father can bring. That my friend is joy, real joy that neither cold nor wet nor anything this world throws at us can take away. Right? 


And I love that he speaks of loyalty here because i think it’s becoming less and less of something that we practice in our culture. We are loyal as long as we thing someone is loyal to us. I’ve been trying to teach my grandkids this week that “payback” isn’t a thing and just because someone does it to you doesn’t make it right to do it to them. But aren’t these basic loyalty lessons? Doesn’t loyalty extend beyond what “I” get out of it? Because if it’s only about “me” that’s selfishness, not loyalty. Yeah, hard lessons for kids as well as adults! 


Dear Lord, as David said have mercy on us, O God, because of your unfailing love and because of your great compassion, blot out the stain of our sins. Wash us in your laundry Lord and let us come out clean. We long to renew a right spirit and have the joy of salvation restored and bring us to an obedience of you. You know what is right and what is best for us. How great and marvelous are your words to us. Praise you our Almighty King. Amen and amen. 


Love you dear one,

Pam

‭‭


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