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21. Intro to Joy - Monday Morning · Family Prayer Podcast

• 0:00
  Good morning, Grace Harbor - it’s Dan!
• 0:03
  Happy Monday!
• 0:04
  I hope you had a great weekend.
• 0:06
  We had fun finishing up our gingerbread house that we started on Friday.
• 0:11
  Have any of you built one this year too?
• 0:13
  If so, I’d love to see a picture of it!
• 0:16
  Have your grown up post a photo and tag us @familyprayerpodcast.
• 0:22
  Well, like last year, when we were building
• 0:24
  we ate about half of the candy meant for decorating the house,
• 0:28
  but *unlike* last year, it did not fall down!
• 0:32
  It’s still standing!
• 0:34
  I imagine by tonight, we’ll all be snacking on it,
• 0:37
  but for now it’s off limits.
• 0:40
  And that’s actually an edict from my daughter.
• 0:42
  She’s so proud of how it turned out that she’s been protecting it all weekend.
• 0:47
  Yesterday afternoon, I started to reach for
• 0:49
  an M&M on the back of the roof - a part of the gingerbread house
• 0:53
  you can’t even see - and I still heard, “Daaaad… what are you doing?”
• 0:59
  You caught me!
• 1:01
  I wonder, do you have any holiday traditions,
• 1:05
  favorite recipes, or special activities?
• 1:08
  Why don’t you take a moment and share with each other
• 1:10
  some of your favorite things you do with your family during the Christmas season.
• 1:14
  If you need more time, you can pause the podcast,
• 1:17
  and I’ll be right here when you get back.
• 1:48
  You know,
• 1:49
  we grown-ups always hope special holiday activities
• 1:53
  will be fun for our kids, but, you know what?
• 1:56
  Sometimes they’re a dud - like when your gingerbread house falls over
• 2:00
  or when you’re
• 2:01
  planning on doing something outside and the weather doesn’t cooperate,
• 2:05
  or when start putting
• 2:06
  the lights on your tree and they don’t make it all the way to the top!
• 2:10
  But can I tell you something kind of amazing?
• 2:13
  Sometimes, it’s when things go wrong
• 2:16
  that you end up with the best stories.
• 2:20
  Think about it.
• 2:21
  You just shared some of your favorite traditions,
• 2:24
  and I wonder if there’s any year where things went awry.
• 2:27
  I have a friend who made a batch of Christmas cookies once,
• 2:30
  and they were rushing, and not paying super close attention, and they ended up
• 2:35
  putting in a bunch of salt when they meant to use sugar.
• 2:38
  They kind of look the same, right?
• 2:40
  Needless to say, it only took one bite out of one cookie
• 2:44
  to know they were not edible and they all had to get thrown away!
• 2:49
  I’m sure it was frustrating and even embarrassing at the time,
• 2:53
  but now it’s a story they tell every year and it makes everyone laugh.
• 2:58
  And that’s a great way to start thinking about this week’s Advent theme.
• 3:02
  You remember what Advent is, right?
• 3:05
  It’s the season where we prepare our hearts for Christmas
• 3:08
  so that we’re ready to get the most out of it.
• 3:11
  Each week has a theme, and we’ve focused on hope and peace.
• 3:16
  This week’s theme is joy!
• 3:19
  We often think of joy as being the same thing as happy
• 3:23
  - maybe just like a higher energy version of the word.
• 3:27
  Well, they’re actually different, and we’ll
• 3:29
  get the chance to explore that together over the course of the week.
• 3:33
  But for now, just think about the super salty cookies,
• 3:37
  or one of the stories from your family where something felt like a disaster
• 3:41
  in the moment but became a source of joy later.
• 3:45
  One of our core disciplines here on the podcast is gratitude,
• 3:48
  and believe it or not this feels like a moment to be grateful.
• 3:53
  Even things that are *not fun* in the moment can,
• 3:56
  with time and the love and encouragement of others,
• 4:00
  become something we laugh about or a story we love to tell.
• 4:04
  I’ll bet you have a few yourself.
• 4:06
  Take a few moments to remind each other of a story from your family
• 4:10
  when things went wrong but now you laugh about it.
• 4:13
  Not everyone has to have an answer—if you just have one or two
• 4:17
  that everyone remembers, that would be great.
• 4:20
  If you need more time, you can pause the podcast,
• 4:22
  and I’ll be right here when you get back.
• 4:32
  Ha ha,
• 4:48
  I feel like I could hear some of you laughing out there!
• 4:59
  Ok, as we get ready to head out into our Monday, let’s say a prayer.
• 5:05
  If you want to, you can close your eyes and fold your hands.
• 5:09
  Dear God,
• 5:10
  we thank you for stories that make us laugh.
• 5:14
  Laughing is a great way to experience joy, and laughing together
• 5:18
  as a family is a great way to feel connected to each other.
• 5:22
  We especially thank you that even times when something went wrong
• 5:27
  can turn into a funny story later.
• 5:30
  May we carry with us into our day the joy that is bubbling up in our hearts.
• 5:34
  Amen.
• 5:36
  Ok, Grace Harbor.
• 5:37
  Have a great Monday, and I’ll talk to you tonight!