Most mornings, I awake to the familiar thump, thump, thump of my five-year old daughter’s feet running into my room in her princess underwear, to wish me a good morning. Vera, or Peanut as we like to call her, is definitely a morning person. She wakes up with a smile on her face and it seems she can barely contain the excitement of starting a new day. She delivers a short kiss and then she is on her way out to the living room, not walking, but running.
I, on the other hand, do not wake up excited about my day. Often times, I am too sore to sleep anymore so I just lay awake for about a half an hour thinking about all the stuff I have to get done. When the weight of responsibility finally creates enough pressure I start to chug my way out of bed like an old steam engine. At the end of the day, when I can no longer work, I end up staying up later than I should, so that I can have a few moments of peace because nothing is expected of me.
It’s easy to write off Peanut’s morning joy by saying that she just doesn’t know how hard life is yet or saying that she doesn’t have anything to worry about. But, when I think about the scriptures, Peanut’s example takes on a lot more weight. The Bible seems to say that joy is important for the believer and that joy is linked with trust. "I pray that God, the source of hope, will fill you completely with joy and peace because you trust in him. Then you will overflow with confident hope through the power of the Holy Spirit." Romans 15:13 (NLT.) It’s not that Peanut doesn’t have anything to worry about, it’s that she trusts that Mom and Dad will take care of her, so she is free to be excited about her day. Vera has child-like faith in me (a bit humbling to think about.) It stands to reason then, that perhaps the reason I don’t have joy about my day is because I don’t trust God to take care of me. I guess there is something to the part where Jesus tells me to have faith like a child. Perhaps if I had that kind of trust, I could wake up like Peanut as well.
- Chris Ingersoll
2 comments:
So true Chris! What if we all woke-up more excited to start the day!! I was going to say... what if we all woke up in princess undies... but that would be weird.
hahahahaha. That would be weird, but funny.
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