Joyful Baby

And he said: “Truly I tell you, unless you change and become like little children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven. (Matthew 18:3)

God blessed me with two beautiful children, ages 4 and 1. More so, I was blessed with girls so I'm a #girldad. They love their parents and we absolutely love them. God didn't just bring them into our life to make us laugh and smile - He also blessed us with these kids to bring us closer to Him.

As Matthew writes above, Jesus taught His disciples that everyone must approach God as a little child would - with complete trust and need. And when I think of my oldest daughter, I think of a girl who trusts what her parents say, whether she understands it completely or not. I think of how she needs my help and depends on me for more than just a roof over her head. She always asks me in the morning to just sit next to her while she watches cartoons. That's all she wants - to be next to me. That's the type of relationship God seeks with us.

And when I think of my youngest daughter, who only just turned 1, I think of how no matter the circumstances, she's choosing joy. Over the past few months she has endured multiple ear infections which have, to say the least, been challenging for us as parents. We know there is a treatment to correct this (thank God) but we still hate to see our little girl go through this month after month. Personally, it has been very taxing on me emotionally and I would be lying if I said it hasn't affected my joy. But as my wife pointed out to me last week, she's still smiling.

Count it all joy, my brothers, when you meet trials of various kinds... (James 1:2)

I took a closer look at my daughter. She was battling being sick, yet again, but through it all she's still crawling around and yelping with laughter when she sees something new, like a seagull. She's still making toys out of every day items like straws and boxes. In fact, while we were on vacation last week and I was waiting at CVS for her prescription, she was having a grand old time just smacking two medicine boxes together, laughing and smiling. She's been put through a lot, but she's still choosing joy.

The Bible teaches that joy is not circumstantial. Happiness might be. You may not be happy in your current job or with a particular situation, but you can still choose to have joy. Jesus taught that the world would bring challenges, but that we should be glad because He has overcome (ref. John 16:33).

My 1 year old is choosing joy because she's a baby. There are too many novel wonders for her to explore for her to be wasting her time upset. We need to become more like babies, like our kids. We need to focus on the wonders of God's Word and what the Word says about who we are to Him. We must stop looking at our situations and circumstances on earth, rather, focusing more on Jesus Christ alone and the joy that He brings, especially in the life to come. The joy I choose to have today in the LORD is because of the Cross and how Jesus died for me so I could have eternal life. I know that no matter what life throws at me, it's temporary, and Jesus is all I need for my story to have a happy ending.

Rejoice in the Lord always. I will say it again: Rejoice! (Philippians 4:4)