31 Ways to Pray for your Children: Joy

Today's prayer of the day is for Joy. The verse to go along with joy is 1 Thessalonians 1:6 which says, "You became imitators of us and of the Lord, for you welcomed the message in the midst of severe suffering with the joy given by the Holy Spirit" I love this verse because it emphasizes the fact that joy is given by the Holy Spirit. Not to be confused by happiness. It's so easy to rely on ourselves or others to be happy, but we must rely on God, specifically His Holy Spirit, to be joyful. Specifically to be joyful in ALL circumstances. 

I found a study/article pertaining to joy on a site called Bible Tools. Read all about it here. I  love Solomon's recording of his quest for getting the most out of life- be it pleasure, happiness, joy, laughter etc. Ecclesiastes 2 yields his experiments and conclusions. Basically he could achieve a certain amount of joy, but he still found it unsatisfying. His ultimate conclusion in verse 26 is that God determines whether or not we experience joy: "To the man who pleases him, God gives wisdom, knowledge and happiness, but to the sinner he gives the task of gathering and storing up wealth to hand it over to the one who pleases God. This too is meaningless, a chasing after the wind." 

Lord, I pray that Bekham would learn that seeking joy, happiness, and pleasure here on earth is fleeting. As Solomon says, a chasing after the wind. Teach him that true joy comes from knowing You, seeking You, and seeking to do Your will for his life. Let your Holy Spirit fill him with joy and always teach him to look to you when life seems unsatisfying. Thank you for the words we have from Solomon. I pray that Bekham would read them and take them to heart.

And the update for today... We have an official crawler (with occasional face plant!) Video to come.. but phone is dead :) I will post it tomorrow on this post, so you'll have to come back to see him in action (both face plant AND crawl!) He also is officially eating more than yogurt! Poor kid didn't like baby food. He likes real food. I cooked up some eggs and some carrots and he ate them in bite size pieces like a champ! Praise God. I thought we had a food aversion child on our hands... which... really wouldn't fit well into our family. WE ARE EATERS. He is just growing so, so fast. Should be interesting when we head to the beach next week.. nothing will be child proofed.... he will be full hands in the sand.... he probably will hate the car seat since he now knows he can be mobile on his own! We shall see! Needless to say, we will be busy!! But in a fun way!