There Really Is No Greater Joy with The Empress

Sit up straight. We all need to be on our best behavior, because there in an Empress in the blog today.....The Empress from Good Day Regular People. 

I blog-met The Empress a few months ago, and from the very first post I read, I was ready to join her empire. I just barely restrained myself from gushing all over her comment section and asking for the position of Lady in Waiting. If you don't know her yet, get ready, because I guarantee that you will love her.

The Empress is very sweet, and today she is talking about one of my very favorite things, joy.

There Really Is No Greater Joy

  

I remember staring at a placard, years ago,while in a Christian bookstore,that read, "There is no greater joy than to know my children walk with the Lord."  This was before I had children, and I picked it up, and wondered at the words. I thought, "Yes, it's nice if your children believe what you believe, yes, it's nice if they have something rock solid in their lives, but why joyful? Maybe gratitude, but joyful?" I put the item down, and went on to look at other things.

I am now the mother of 3 boys, and our morning routine is to have breakfast, get dressed and washed up, and then we all walk to the front room window, that faces the sunrise, and we kneel to pray. One of our three sons takes his turn pulling out a biblical verse card that I have printed myself, making the words accessible to them. I've chosen simple verses, and underneath, I have written a small example of why this verse is one I felt important for them to know.

They have never squawked at this routine, they have never refused to nor questioned why we do this every morning. They each pick up their breakfast dishes, automatically head to the front room, and then bend down on their knees, and we begin our prayer. When we finish, I hug them all, and say, "God bless you in your day."

We all do this without thinking, it's as natural as brushing our teeth and making the bed. It is our morning preparation for the day. It doesn't matter if we are late, have run out of time, or are not in a good mood. We kneel together, and pray, everyday.

Last year, I needed some minor surgery done. I was sleeping downstairs on the sofa, to avoid going up and down to our bedroom upstairs. One morning, right after the surgery, as I was laying sleepily on the sofa, our 3 boys came down, had breakfast, got washed up, and began to prepare for their day.  I wanted to get up and remind them to pray, but I was very groggy from the pain medication I had taken the night before. I kept wanting to say something, but I felt so weary. I watched them through half closed lids, and slowly began to fall back asleep.  I heard my oldest son tell his two brothers to pick up the dishes, and get ready for the day. Then, I saw three shadows, one following the next, in a line, walking, headed to the large front room window. I saw them all stand in front of the window, stop together, then they knelt down. The oldest handed the verse card to the middlest, who then read slowly enough for the youngest to understand. Then I heard them pray for "mama's healing."

They finished, quickly stood up, and went about their day.  What I had just seen them do, on their own, lwithout a reminder from me, left me speechless and smiling with tears that slowly fell out of the corners of my eyes.

My children got it, they truly got it. Prayer was not an obligation to them, prayer was communication. Prayer wasn't something that their mother and father made them do, prayer was something that was a natural part of their life.

I smiled, joyfully, and the words from the placard I had seen so many years ago, blessedly came to my mind. "There is NO greater joy than to know my children walk with the Lord."

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