Over the last few days, I've been contemplating what my "Word of the Year" is going to be. I've bounced around a bunch of ideas, but the one I keep coming back to is: Joy
The bottom line to me is that I can make more money, or I can lose weight, I can even make more music and cook more, but ultimately, if I'm not enjoying life, what's the point? And I want to enjoy it like the word really means: to enJOY it. Or, in other words, to find joy in life.
That scripture lays it right out on the line. My whole purpose in life is to find joy. Not to just "have fun", mind you, but to truly find joy. Honestly, I don't know what that really means, but I aim to find out this year.
I think it's interesting that the scripture mentions joy in the same breath that it mentions the fall. The very thing that brought death, sorrow, and suffering into the world, is the same thing that allowed us to exist, and that allows us to find the joy.
I have a few thoughts of how I can start doing that. One thing I'm going to do is to start counting my blessings more, rather than focusing on my frustrations. Each blog entry is going to be wrapped up with a short segment that I'm going to call, "Joyful Noises". This will be something recent that I've experienced, seen, or noticed that has brought joy. Personal prayer will play a big part in it this year as well. I'll look at difficulties as opportunities and frustrations as mere bumps in the road with otherwise beautiful scenery.
So, come join me. Make a joyful noise along with me, and enter His gates with thanksgiving!
Tonight's Joyful Noise:
I was finally able to reinstall my music program into my laptop, and I can now carry on recording music! I'm very excited by that. It's been a while since I last recorded. I think I'm going to start with "The Third Time". What's that one like, you ask? You'll just have to wait and see! Muahahahaha!
MRKH
Mark Hansen
http://markhansenmusic.com
I've found that 2 Nephi 2:25 takes on new meaning when it is read in conjunction with the beginning of 2 Nephi 2:26 "And the Messiah cometh in the fullness of times, that he might redeem the children of men from the fall."
ReplyDeleteI think that is the secret: to *find* the joy.
ReplyDeleteI lived a very long time finding the misery, the blame, the lack, the test. I credit much of my new attitude to President Hinckley who kept telling us to find some joy.
I am now able to see much good that has come from the challenges and situations in my life. I still complain, but I'm growing now. Letting go of those things I can't control, trying to find a way to spin the things I can into joy.
Joy is what is best in life. Many persue it, few understand it, and fewer still seem to recognize it once they have it.
ReplyDelete