Finding Joy in Everyday Life

I'm really excited about this topic. This is one of my favorite things. Maybe one of my signature things, I would even have to say, that I like about myself and that I love to share with other people.

So let's dive right in. Today we are talking about seeing joy in the everyday, or as I also like to call it, the blessed mundane. You know that our lives as moms are full of mundane every day, basic, basic stuff. Wiping little bottoms and brushing little teeth, feeding people again and again and again, and wiping up messes and picking up toys, teaching, training, disciplining, correcting.

There is a lot of just regular, simple, sometimes boring everyday stuff that we do. We have already talked about how the little things that we're doing is holy work. Today I want to take a little bit different tack on that same topic: finding the joy in the stuff that we do. 

Finding joy in the basic, every day, mundane, regular things that we do because we are called to be women of faith. We are called to be women of joy. Joy is a fruit of the holy spirit. When we have the holy spirit living inside of us, then we can have the outpouring, the fruit, of joy.

Joy is something also that can be cultivated. When you have a tree, you can improve the fruitfulness of that tree by pruning, by supporting certain areas or certain branches of that tree. And we can do the same thing in our own lives. And that's what I want to talk about today. 

So how do you find joy in taking care of a sick toddler? How do you find joy in wiping up the spaghetti that your baby threw on the floor during dinner? How do you find joy even in correcting your children? I want to suggest to you that it's all a matter of our heart posture before God. And it's a matter of looking for it, because whatever we're looking for, we're going to find.

That is such an amazing concept, and it is true in just about every area of life. If we're looking for the joy in things, we’re going to find it. If we're looking for how horrible things are or how boring things are, then that is going to be true to us as well. So I want to suggest that we set aside the idea that our life is boring and mundane and basic, and that we pick up the idea that our life is joyful, that our life has sparkle, that our life is full of little moments that are going to be full of delight. 

Years ago. I heard about this idea from a radio host who was raving to her fellow host that a certain type of coffee that she loved was back in stock. Her cohost laughed at her and said, “I think you have a case of LDL.” And they started laughing and talking about LDL, which stood for Low Delight Level. So basically they were saying to this girl, “you have such a low delight level, that even a certain kind of coffee just brightens your entire day.” And she laughed and said, “oh, I so do.”

I was listening to that and I started laughing because I thought to myself, “oh, that's what I have.” And so I want to tell you my friend. Cultivate LDL in your life, make yourself so hyper-aware of the little things that are sparking joy in your life, that your life suddenly becomes this beautiful, sparkling thing.

Now, of course our lives have hard things. Our lives have tough things, but even in the midst of those things, there can be sparkles and glimpses of joy and delight. So lower your delight level. Allow yourself the thrill of being excited about something tiny. Allow yourself the thrill of seeing that glimmer of beauty in your child's eyes and take a minute to notice it, allow yourself to see how cute your kids are.

I mean, God didn't make them cute for no reason. There's so beautiful and God gave them to you and you get to enjoy that beauty. Isn't that awesome? I mean, just looking at your baby's little rounded tummy, doesn't that just make you so happy? Kissing your toddler’s cheeks when they're just so soft and warm after a bath? I mean, there's almost nothing better than that. Smelling your newborn baby. Yes. Don't even get me started. 

So those little tiny things can spark joy in us can just delight our hearts if we allow them to. And I want to propose to you that that is a way that we can fill our lives with joy and become even more joyful mothers if we are looking around and looking for things to be joyful about.

If this is a foreign concept to you, or you like the idea, but you feel like it is too hard, it is not your personality, it is not your style or whatever, here is what I want to suggest: Let’s cry out to the Lord and say, “Lord, I know that you declare in your word that you make me a joyful mother of children. I receive that into my life in Jesus name, help me to notice the joy that is around me.” 

Mamas. Do your kids laugh all the time? Mine do! About ridiculous things that I don't even know what  is going on! But if I pause when I hear them laughing and I allow my heart to tune into that joy that they have, even if it's over something that's really childish, sometimes I will just laugh and allow myself to enter in to their silly, giddy, little joy things that they do. So laugh with your children, allow their joy and their hilarity to infect you with LDL so that you can have a joyful life.

Let's leverage the joy that God has put around us in our kids. And let's allow that to buoy ourselves up on that joy. We will not regret being joyful moms. We will not regret laughing with our children. We will never regret finding joy in the tiny moments as little or as infrequently as we might feel they come.

If we can search for joy and we can learn how to do that, our lives will become sparkling and delightful. 

This is a transcription of a podcast episode of the Rejoicing in Motherhood podcast. To hear more of this episode, click here.