1 PETER 4:11
I am usually a fairly happy person. More often than not, I have some song stuck in my head that I can’t seem to help singing. But the one thing that is guaranteed to change my mood and make me stop my singing is getting assigned a long list of jobs to do around the house. When this happens, I am definitely not a joyful person inside. Sometimes I feel like bluntly refusing to do what my parents tell me to do, but usually, I trudge ahead, making even the simplest chores into the hardest jobs known to humans. I really long to have God’s joy in everything I do and say, whether I am hanging out with friends, babysitting, or doing the gnarliest of chores. One of these days I want to shock my parents by singing, “The joy of the Lord is my strength …” while cleaning the bathroom. I know that my parents would be flabbergasted. I still have a lot to learn about doing my chores with a joyful heart. I can just imagine the difference it would make in my own life and in other people’s lives if I was joyful all the time. I am beginning to believe that joy is a choice. And I want to choose it.
Jana Kroeker, 15, home school, Medicine Hat, Alberta, CA
Today, when my parents ask me to do some boring chore,
I want to do it with joy, Lord. It will surprise them
in a really good way.