Thoughts on the Joy Sprinkling Challenge

A few weeks back I wrote about the difference between joy and happiness, and how happiness depends on external circumstances, while joy grows out of love... our love for God, His love for us, and how that is reflected in our lives with others.

So you may be wondering why I would call my little challenge "joy sprinkling" instead of "happiness sprinkling."  After all, neither a game with Mama nor a cinnamon roll are going to bring abiding joy.

While my daily sprinklings are certainly external, they are driven by my care for each of the recipients.  Each sprinkling is a reflection of the circumstances of the other's life, his or her personality, and our relationship. It is my attempt to show my love in a way that is different from the normal serving I do as a mother and wife.

Love is like that, isn't it?  Revealed in action.  As mothers we wash dishes, we wipe bottoms, we teach lessons... outward and visible signs of the love that drives us.  I do these things every day, and they are habit.  They are of great value, and yes, they sprinkle joy too.  A home that is loving and safe is a gift that many do not have... all your efforts to make your home a haven of blessing and peace are worthwhile.  A shelter in the storm, and most importantly, the place to be introduced to Jesus, the source of abiding joy.

I think, though, that sometimes we become weary.  As the years roll into decades of washing, wiping, teaching... sometimes the energy lags.  My heart and mind are convinced that my most important ministry right now is to my family.  Yet sometimes my body (my sin nature!) doesn't want to cooperate.

I challenged myself (admittedly with fear and trembling) to act intentionally to outwardly bless others daily in a new way, partly to get myself out of my own rut.  I have struggled with myself over whether or not being public about this was the best thing to do.  I greatly fear that it will seem as if I am being prideful about this project.  On the contrary, I know in my very center that it is not enough.  Never can be enough.

I am well aware that what I have been doing is in some ways akin to adding icing flowers to an already frosted cake.  We are ridiculously, opulently wealthy in the United States, compared to most of the people in the world.  I know this, but for this moment in my life, I am here, and the people I am called to serve are the people in my right-now world.

Being the selfish creature that I am, being accountable to write about it helps me to do it.  Today is day 13, and I still have 87 to go.  Eighty seven more ways to find to bless someone.  I pray for creativity.  There are people I want to sprinkle, but have no idea how.  There are needs larger than I can wrap my mind around.  But not too big for the vastness of God's mind.

Friends, I hope that today you will choose to find a way to specially bless someone in your life, finding a new way to show them your love.  Because all the love you have to offer is a gift.  None of it is your own.

We love, because He first loved us.  ~ 1 John 4:19

And in His great mercy, as you pour out your life as an offering, you will be filled up to the measure of all the fullness of God!

Give, and it will be given to you. A good measure, pressed down, shaken together and running over, will be poured into your lap. For with the measure you use, it will be measured to you.  ~ Luke 6:38

Please share with me how you are choosing to act in love and sprinkle joy in your corner of the world.  It's an encouragement to me to persevere, and I just might glean some new ideas... after all... eighty seven days!

joy flowers by imagechef

cake photo by phaedra wilkinson

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