Count it all joy

I loved Easter when I was a kid. In Northwest Missouri, the weather was often warm and clear enough for our Easter egg hunts to be held in the backyard. We usually had to get ready for church first and then my younger brother and I could venture out back to see what we could find.

Every well-dressed lady in the '50s wore white gloves to church on Easter morning. This was me. Get a load of the lace colllar and cuffs. And, of course, the matching Easter bonnet. [Tony Lord, Sr., photo]

Every well-dressed lady in the ’50s wore white gloves to church on Easter morning. This was me. Get a load of the lace collar and cuffs. And, of course, the matching Easter bonnet. [Tony Lord, Sr., photo]

Our “take” for our Easter baskets was always hard-boiled colored eggs. No candy or toys for our Easter household. As I recall, coloring eggs in those days was more labor intensive than it is today. I know there was hot water and vinegar involved, and food coloring. When I was little, I’m not sure if I watched that process or not. Perhaps Mom told us that the eggs she was coloring on the day before Easter were just for table decorations for our Easter meal. Then when we would hunt for the eggs the Easter bunny left, those were to be made into deviled eggs. And I loved deviled eggs.

The best and surest place for me to find a few Easter eggs was in Mom’s tulip bed. At that time of year, the tulips were usually blooming and I could carefully walk among the brightly colored plants to find tinted eggs carefully nested in real plastic grass. Sometimes the eggs even matched the tulips! That Easter bunny was a clever fellow.

As we got older, I don’t remember many tulips in that bed. Perhaps they just stopped growing or some little varmint munched on the bulbs until they were gone. Just as likely, the basketball that daily was tossed around and into the nearby hoop made its way into that bed along with growing feet of both boys and girls aspiring to be sports standouts. But the tulips disappeared.

As we get further from childhood and encounter the challenges of the world, as we finally get to be the grownups we couldn’t wait to be, it’s easy to forget the joys that surrounded us as children. No family is perfect, but as I look back, I really had a truly joyful childhood. In fact, as I have reflected on it through the years, I am absolutely certain that one of the gifts the Holy Spirit gave me was the gift of joy.

Now, to hear some of my siblings talk, life was awful growing up in that house. If you hear that argument often enough, it’s easy to come to believe it. I will admit to giving in to those negative thoughts. Maybe what they experienced was really awful. But my childhood was really great. Not always easy, but really great. It’s funny how brothers and sisters can have such completely different memories of the same household.

Tiptoeing in my mom's tulip bed, I would often find several brightly colored eggs left by the Easter bunny. [Gretchen Lord Anderson photo]

Tiptoeing in my mom’s tulip bed, I would often find several brightly colored eggs left by the Easter bunny. These tulips happen to be from one of Terry’s gardens. [Gretchen Lord Anderson photo]

What I learned pretty early, however, is that no matter how joyful I was, life has a way of sucking that joy right out of a person if it’s allowed to do so. If we want (and some don’t want), we can get over hurt feelings and just learn to deal with that as part of growing up. But there are times when we suffer at the hands of death, grief, and other life losses, and it’s easier to let the joy slip away and to be replaced my bitterness and anger.

Mom had a pristine tulip bed surrounded by a scalloped wire fence to keep out both kids and rabbits. Made it pretty hard for the Easter bunny and me to get access on Easter morning. [Gretchen Lord Anderson photo]

Mom had a pristine tulip bed surrounded by a scalloped wire fence to keep out both kids and rabbits. Made it pretty hard for the Easter bunny and me to get access on Easter morning. [Gretchen Lord Anderson photo]

I have, for the most part, been able to hang on to my gift of joy through thick and thin. It’s been a struggle sometimes, that is certain. There have been times when I have just sat and despaired over the joy that had become so elusive in my life. Each time I have vowed to find it again. And each time, as elusive as it seemed to be, it has returned. I suppose that’s part of the gift if it’s properly handled.

As I have worked with many young people in the church, I look for that spark of joy that is clearly inherent in only a few. When I have discovered it (along with other gifts of the Spirit), I have pulled these young people aside and pointed out those gifts, explaining they are gifts from God and that should not be taken lightly. They should be celebrated and acknowledged as something precious. I have told them that there are things in life that conspire to fight those gifts or to take them away, but that they should be aware that God has given them these gifts for a special purpose and their jobs are to discover what that purpose might be. Sometimes I have left my observations unspoken, but have quietly worked with a child to help develop those gifts.

Making a life changeAll of us make life changing decisions at one time or another or several times in our lives. Some of those decisions may be required of us. Some are optional. Some are induced by circumstances. But all life changing decisions can be made with a sense of the gifts God has given us to cope, to celebrate, to redirect ourselves, to learn.

Whether we think of our circumstances as joyful or joyless, we can remember that we are directed to “count it all joy.”

Oh, and Easter? It’s still my favorite holiday. It’s at Easter and Thanksgiving that I have the most joyful memories of family as a child and with friends as an adult. What joy!

 

 

My brothers and sisters, whenever you face trials of any kind, consider it nothing but joy, because you know that the testing of your faith produces endurance; and let endurance have its full effect, so that you may be mature and complete, lacking in nothing. – James 1:2-4

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