Grass Stains & 5 minutes

The morning after Halloween I asked my son why he had grass stains on his new khaki pants.  It was hard for him to answer my question because me asking it made him start laughing uncontrollably.  When he finally could spit out the answer, he told me that the grass stains happened when he fell down in the yard because he was laughing so hard.  Wow, I thought...what a GREAT thing.  To laugh so hard, to be so happy, so full of joy, so totally cracked up that you fall down.  That is what I crave. Most adults probably do if we are honest since life for the average grown up can be pretty serious and stressful. 

My mind went to JOY and my old favorite verse in Psalms 16:11.  It says "You have made known to me the path of life.  You will fill me with joy in your presence."  When I discovered this verse back in the 90s, it was life-changing for me.  I wanted joy.  I needed JOY and I found out how to get it in this verse.  Joy would come to me when I made time in my day to get in His presence.  Not a mystery, just a daily practice and habit that I would need to keep if I was going to have anything in my life that resembled JOY.

I have to admit that as I approach my 40s, I seem to be tired more.  My snooze is my BFF and I press it more and more.  I have had years when I was involved in pretty in-depth Bible Studies and I got up really early to read, write, and study.  The past few months I have been in the presence of the Lord daily, but really only for 5 minutes or so.  I get my coffee, go back to my bed, make it up, and then sit on my side with my cozy blanket and read one of my devotional books.  That is my 5 minutes.  That is how I begin my day and without it, I FAIL and there is no JOY!  I have to have that time with the Lord.  I am sure that my energy will come back and my time may be more, but let me tell you that I can testify that the 5 minutes is life changing.

I recommend Jesus Calling by Sarah Young or Utmost for His Highest by Oswald Chambers.  There are so many good devotional books out.  Combine that with a Psalms read out loud and a prayer, and you are ready to go!  More would be better, serious study is needed at times, but this simple 5 minutes at the beginning of the day will change your life. It is the way to have JOY.  Maybe not falling down in the grass laughter, but JOY!  Try it...don't wait til next year, try it tomorrow.