Cultivate Joy {32}

Dear Miss Dinah,

Cultivate a life of joy, at all costs, and it will go well with you.

This is not easy.

This world will offer you many opportunities
   to get bummed out,
   to lose hope,
   to despair.

Cultivate a life of joy,
   not just positive energy,
   not just wishful thinking,
   not just believing in whatever works for today.

   but dwelling in the place of real, tangible, lasting joy.

1How lovely is your dwelling place,

O Lord of Heaven’s Armies.            

2I long, yes, I faint with longing     

to enter the courts of the Lord.

With my whole being, body and soul,

I will shout joyfully to the living God.

3Even the sparrow finds a home,

and the swallow builds her nest and raises her young

at a place near your altar,

O Lord of Heaven’s Armies, my King and my God!

4What joy for those who can live in your house,

always singing your praises.

5What joy for those whose strength comes from the Lord,

who have set their minds on a pilgrimage to Jerusalem.

6When they walk through the Valley of Weeping,^b

it will become a place of refreshing springs.

The autumn rains will clothe it with blessings.

7They will continue to grow stronger,

and each of them will appear before God in Jerusalem.^c

                                ~ Psalm 84

You and Guinny (Daddy thinks we should spell it this way...ha!!) Wearing your matching pink and showing off your crawling skills. The computer screen saver happened to flash through a pic of Mamma and Daddy right when I snapped the shot. Funny!!

^{I love you.}

^{Mamma <3}