A Joyful Heart
- Brooke Singleton
- Dec 30, 2024
- 3 min read
“And the source of our joy is sure and immovable, never ending and never-leaving.”
“A joyful heart is good medicine, but a broken spirit dries up the bones.” Proverbs 17:22
I think it’s common for us to lump joy and happiness together and use them interchangeably. But by definition and application, they are totally different, and I think it’s a really important distinction for our lives and our motherhood.
Simply put:
Happiness is a state of mind. Joy is a state of soul.
Let me explain. Happiness is synonymous with satisfying experiences. It's endorphins and pleasurable responses, like watching our sweet kids’ faces while they sleep, hearing a baby belly laugh, watching our kids really enjoy an experience, feeling them sink in to your hug and breathing in their smell. Joy is something quite different. Biblical joy is a lasting emotion that comes from trusting in God. Joy supernaturally sustains our souls in seasons of heartache, injustice, and sorrow… seasons that happiness can’t touch.
Happiness is a reaction to something great. Joy is the product of someone great.
Perhaps this is shown nowhere better than in the book of Job in the Old Testament. Job LOVED God and he had it all. Happiness abounded. Then in an instant, it was all stripped away in disaster; every child and animal killed, every “dollar” lost, even his health was taken. But Job never lost his faith in God. Joy isn’t a gushy feeling, but a heart choice that is Spirit fanned and fed, rooted in who God is and that He is ours. Job possessed the wisdom to know God's character and the strong faith to hold onto what he knew would get him through his completely falling apart life.
That’s the difference when our days seem to be fraying at the edges, or our season seems to be imploding. We may have every earthly right to fly the victim flag, but we instead choose to remember that our lives are in the capable hands of the Father, our defender.
The difference between happiness and joy is the source.
And the source of our joy is sure and immovable, never ending and never-leaving. He is not fleeting or flighty, fickle or not enough. Our joy comes from meditating in all that God is and all He promises, even if our eyes don’t quite see it yet.
Action Step:
Read the story of Job. It’s a bit long, but it’ll be one of the best things you’ve read.
Prayer: Faithful Father, all our hope is in You. Thank You for the gift of happiness, fond memories, for laughter, for a life that makes us smile. And thank You more for joy, immovable. I bless the moms reading this, with a deeper understanding of finding joy in who You are, before the storms of life come or while they’re in the middle of the squall. Draw them close under the shelter of Your wing, minister to their hearts and grow the roots of their faith deep down into You, so that Your character would anchor them in all that is ahead. Help us to remember that when all is said and done, You promise us that joy comes in the morning. In Jesus' faithful name.
Written by Brooke, joy filled mom of 3