Latest / Family Prayer Podcast / 24. Choosing Joy - Tuesday Evening

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24. Choosing Joy - Tuesday Evening · Family Prayer Podcast

• 0:01
  Good evening, Grace Harbor - it’s Dan.
• 0:03
  How was your Tuesday?
• 0:05
  Have any of you celebrated Gratituesday already?
• 0:08
  I got to work on a batch of Christmas
• 0:10
  cookies for the elementary school teachers and staff this afternoon,
• 0:14
  and I’ll send them with my daughter tomorrow morning.
• 0:17
  I hope they love them, but even more importantly,
• 0:20
  I hope they feel loved and celebrated!
• 0:24
  If you have a Gratituesday story to share, or you’d like to tell us all about
• 0:28
  what brings you joy, remember that we have listener mail on Fridays,
• 0:32
  and we would love to include your voice in the podcast!
• 0:36
  If you’d like to send something
• 0:37
  in, have your grown up check the show notes for details.
• 0:41
  Ok, so do you remember the story
• 0:43
  I told you last night about slipping and falling?
• 0:47
  When it happened, how was I feeling?
• 0:50
  Not great, right?! My knee was hurting.
• 0:53
  I was embarrassed.
• 0:54
  And I was starting to feel mad.
• 0:57
  But then the people who saw me fall came over to check on me,
• 1:00
  and it made me feel better.
• 1:02
  We even ended up laughing about it together.
• 1:05
  For sure, their compassion and care
• 1:08
  played a big role in turning my mood around.
• 1:11
  But as I was reflecting on what we talked about this morning -
• 1:14
  the difference between happiness and joy -
• 1:18
  something else occurred to me.
• 1:20
  We said this morning that happiness is a feeling.
• 1:24
  It comes and goes, usually based on our circumstances.
• 1:29
  If things are going well, it’s pretty easy to feel happy.
• 1:33
  But if something not-so-good happens, like slipping and falling
• 1:36
  in front of a bunch of people, it just - poof!
• 1:39
  - disappears!
• 1:41
  Joy is different.
• 1:44
  Joy is also something we can feel, but it goes deeper than that.
• 1:48
  Joy is something that can stick around in our hearts,
• 1:51
  even when things aren’t going our way.
• 1:54
  It could be a really tough day, and yet we can think about our friends or family,
• 1:59
  or we can say a quick prayer - something like “Dear God, I’m
• 2:03
  not feeling great right now, but I know you’re with me,”
• 2:06
  - and it reminds us that we’re loved no matter what
• 2:10
  It can be hard to make
• 2:12
  ourselves happy, but we can actually choose joy!
• 2:16
  And that’s what I realized.
• 2:18
  It was super nice of my neighbors to come check on me after I fell.
• 2:22
  But I could have still walked away mad.
• 2:25
  And don’t get me wrong - it is absolutely ok
• 2:28
  to feel sad or disappointed or frustrated.
• 2:32
  Choosing joy doesn’t mean we pretend that things are fine when they’re not.
• 2:37
  But it does mean that we choose which feeling is most important.
• 2:42
  I chose not to stay mad but instead to be joyful.
• 2:46
  And because I chose joy and started laughing,
• 2:49
  they started laughing too, and we all left full of joy.
• 2:54
  Choosing joy is one of the most important skills we can learn as we grow up.
• 2:59
  It isn’t always easy - even for adults.
• 3:02
  But think about it!
• 3:03
  How amazing is it that, no matter what’s going on
• 3:07
  or how we’re feeling, we can always choose joy?
• 3:10
  It can turn our day around.
• 3:12
  It can even be contagious, giving other people joy as well.
• 3:16
  One of our core disciplines is setting intentions.
• 3:20
  That means taking time to think about what we have to do each day.
• 3:24
  It also means deciding *how* we want to do the things we have to do each day.
• 3:29
  And so here’s a challenge for this week:
• 3:32
  can you try to choose joy this week?
• 3:34
  Now, it might be easy to leave the house each morning with joy
• 3:38
  because not much has happened yet.
• 3:41
  But the reason it’s a challenge is that as soon as things start happening,
• 3:45
  it could end up being a good day or it could end up being a tough day,
• 3:49
  and choosing joy might feel a little bit harder.
• 3:53
  Why don’t you take a few moments to share with each other whether you or not
• 3:56
  you think choosing joy will be easy or hard for you this week and why.
• 4:02
  Maybe you think it’ll be easy because the last week of school
• 4:05
  before Christmas can be a lot of fun.
• 4:07
  Or maybe you think it’ll be hard because there’s
• 4:10
  someone in your class or at work that’s hard to get along with.
• 4:14
  If you need more time, you can pause the podcast, and I’ll
• 4:17
  be right here when you get back.
• 4:49
  Ok, how are you feeling?
• 4:52
  Hopefully a lot of you think choosing joy will be easy this week.
• 4:56
  But if there was anyone in your family that thought it might be hard this week,
• 5:01
  the rest of you can help them choose joy this week
• 5:04
  by reminding them how much you love them no matter what.
• 5:08
  Ok, let's end with a prayer.
• 5:11
  If you want to, you can close your eyes and fold your hands.
• 5:15
  Dear God, we thank you for this day and for all of your blessings.
• 5:20
  We thank you that joy is not just something that comes and goes,
• 5:24
  but it’s something we can choose.
• 5:26
  Help us to choose joy this week as a family,
• 5:29
  especially as Christmas gets closer everyday.
• 5:33
  Amen.
• 5:35
  Good night, Grace Harbor.
• 5:36
  I’ll see you in the morning when we have a special day in history to celebrate.