Football And Joy

It is football season. I love football. I am a home team girl through and through!

 Go Ravens!

 

Go Easton Warriors!!! Local High School team; Our kids are home schooled!

                         

                                       

And unless they are playing the Ravens: Go Cardinals! (I was born and raised in AZ, what can I say!)

But My 9yo son, Noah, he LOVES LOVES LOVES football. Right now, every move he makes in the house is a football play. Most every conversation has game stats from some game he has watched in the last week. He can explain, with enthusiasm, the play of the game that was the pinnacle of that game.
 
Which is interesting.

He doesn't play the game in an organized sport.

Until a couple of Fridays ago when I took him to a Easton Warriors High School game, he had never seen a live game.

SO why the passion for the game? Why does joy just pour out of him while watching football?

I have been really enjoying watching my joyful son. And pondering his attitude.

This is what I have observed:
My son always has a song and beat going. He is always, and I mean always singing. 90% of the time it is what most would label as "worship" songs.  But he really likes Dan Smith parodies.(http://www.whitedj.com) He just SINGS!! Or he is dancing to a beat that can only be heard in his head.

It was while I saw him dancing that it hit me.

The song he was hearing in his head that caused him to dance, was actually,
IN HIS HEART!

Psa 71:23  

My lips will sing with joy when I make music to praise you. My soul, which you have rescued, also will sing joyfully.

My son finds overwhelming joy in football, because the joy is already there!
He is a joyful child.
(except with food, he is a picky eater. He has grown into being more joyful with that too!)

When you have a heart that is filled with joy, it spills out in everything you do. I see this with my son so wonderfully. He sings while he does his school work. He sings while he does his chores. He sings while he is playing.
All the time.
His joy spills out!

Matthew 18:3

And he said: "I tell you the truth, unless you change and become like little children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven.

This verse has always been very meaningful. I love the fact that we are to become like the children, not make them into stuffy adults!

I think , that as I watch my boy, I have glimpse  of what Jesus meant when He said it. Jesus saw joy in little children.

Why this joy?

They have very few cares in this world. They don't worry where the next meal is coming from. They trust it will be there when they are hungry.

They don't worry about where they will sleep. They know where their bed is. They trust that it will be there waiting at bedtime.

They don't worry about what they will wear. Clothes are in the drawer

We have been given a life of hope, security, love, and an eternity with King Jesus, who, died for us! Why are we not singing, dancing and overflowing with joy every moment of our lives?

Could it be we lack trust in our "Father"?

Matthew 6:25-34 

"Therefore I tell you, do not be anxious about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink, nor about your body, what you will put on. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothing?  Look at the birds of the air: they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they? And which of you by being anxious can add a single hour to his span of life? And why are you anxious about clothing? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow: they neither toil nor spin, yet I tell you, even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these. But if God so clothes the grass of the field, which today is alive and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, will he not much more clothe you, O you of little faith? Therefore do not be anxious, saying, 'What shall we eat?' or 'What shall we drink?' or 'What shall we wear?' For the Gentiles seek after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them all. But seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you. "Therefore do not be anxious about tomorrow, for tomorrow will be anxious for itself. Sufficient for the day is its own trouble.

I will choose today, to trust and live in the abundant joy that Jesus has called us to!

This song helps me to remember this very fact!

Trading My Sorrows

Chasing After Their Hearts,


Glenda Johnson
womanaftergod@gmail.com
http://www.twitter.com/GlendaJohnson63
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