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February 19, 2006
The Discipline of Joy
I don't have much physical activity to report on. Despite the fact that my knee continues to feel pretty good, I decided to take the day off today so as to give it a rest (which never hurts my feet either). I had determined last Thursday that I would take today off if I could swim Friday and Saturday, so the decision had been made a while ago. It wasn't that hard to stick to it this morning though when it was 5 degrees with a -4 windchill. Of course it felt that cold in our house too so I'm not too sure going outside would have been much worse. And to think my family actually had the gall to complain about how "cold" the weather was in South Carolina - all the way down into the high 40s! Awful! (although it's entirely likely someone in Minnesota or Montana could be reading this post and wondering why in the world I would complain about 5 degrees above :) Anyway, I did my core and feet exercises (inside!) and called it a day. Tomorrow I plan on a 50 minute run.
Regardless, I thought I would mention something I found very interesting in the Bible study O and I went to tonight. The series we have just started is all about "spiritual disciplines", things like fellowship and worship, reading the Bible, prayer, tithing, fasting, etc... But tonight's spiritual discipline was "joy". It doesn't seem like joy is something we should have to work at and practice, but after tonight, I think I realized it is. Just speaking for myself, I can say (with some regret) that I often find myself going through the day with the goal of crossing things off "the list". It's the "get this over with so I can move onto the next thing" type of attitude, both at work and at home and even sometimes when I'm working out. Of course sometimes there is drudergy in life, but if I think about it, more often I'm working at "getting through things" instead of really enjoying things, no matter what that thing is. What an awful attitude! Life will pass me by while I trying to cross things off my to do list! Anyway, it was a nice little reminder to enjoy life and find joy in all the little things we must do. If I had to guess, I'd say only 5% of our lives is spent doing things like vacation and "fun stuff" while the other 95% of our lives is the "daily grind". If we don't enjoy that daily grind and find joy in it, I'd say we'll be pretty miserable people! So my goal this week is to find joy in all I do, even doing the laundry and lifting weights and on Friday at 3 pm at work, knowing that we are too richly blessed not to enjoy life. I suspect my project will get off to a good start tomorrow because O has the day off work and I took a vacation day. Even I can find joy in that. :)
Posted by beth at February 19, 2006 9:56 PM
Comments
I'd be interested in hearing about ways you find to make all of those little things enjoyable. I've thought about this a bunch before, but it's easier to think than to actually act on. Good luck having a great week!
Posted by: Alison at February 20, 2006 8:47 AM
Well of course it was a Bible study so the focus was entirely on God and seeing the mundane things of life as just as important and as just as much a blessing as the "exciting" things in life. Knowing the joy of knowing God ALL the time, not just when we are having fun. Feeling incredibly blessed by all we have. Surrounding ourselves with like minded people (which isn't always easy). Taking the TIME to enjoy life, like you would when you are on vacation. Make an effort to smile and laugh more than you usually do. It certainly won't be easy but just keep working at it like anything else and it will become more of a habit.
Posted by: Beth at February 20, 2006 10:47 AM