Episode Transcript
[00:00:00] Joy.
[00:00:01] We're just gonna transition right into joy.
[00:00:04] Okay, Turn the little page on your book there. We're doing good. Okay. Can you tell I talk to teenagers? All right, what is joy?
[00:00:14] So this is where we're gonna start. This is our definition. Joy is to be celebrated, and true delight comes from the Lord and should be capitalized on when it's seen.
[00:00:27] Joy is to be celebrated.
[00:00:30] True delight comes from the Lord and should be capitalized on when it's seen.
[00:00:39] Like there's a spiritual aspect to joy.
[00:00:44] Joy doesn't require certain circumstances to be present.
[00:00:51] When you think about happiness.
[00:00:53] Happiness comes from certain circumstances that are going on. Joy doesn't require that. Right? Because joy is from the Lord and so it really does come from God.
[00:01:03] Some other words for joy, especially that we see in Scripture, are delight are cheerfulness and jubilee.
[00:01:10] That's my favorite.
[00:01:13] How does it present?
[00:01:16] Physically, you see this in your kids. Laughter, smiling.
[00:01:22] Emotionally, it's a sense of light heartedness.
[00:01:27] Emotionally, it's a sense of carefreeness that, like the things that are weighing you, mom and dad, from your day and all the stuff right now, your kid doesn't have that.
[00:01:38] There's a layer of carefreeness and joy that they experience, and we need to experience some of that too.
[00:01:44] Okay? Behaviorally, a lot of times this is play, right?
[00:01:50] Behaviorally, this is really good play. This is overlooking the negative, right? Because it's not circumstantial. Your family can be walking through some very difficult things and you've still experienced the joy of the Lord. And so it's gonna be the same for your kid, all right? Because it doesn't come from you as much as we want it to.
[00:02:15] It comes from the Lord. Okay?
[00:02:18] What does God say About joy?
[00:02:22] Psalms 37:4 says, to delight yourself in the Lord and he's going to grant you the desires of your heart.
[00:02:30] And the way that this text is written is that we're to delight ourselves in him.
[00:02:35] And. And if our heart is focused on him, he's gonna give us more of what our heart is focused on, which is him.
[00:02:42] It's like a circle here. Like, I'm delighting in the Lord, and because I'm delighting in the Lord, the Lord's gonna give me more of himself.
[00:02:49] It's an incredible moment when we look at this concept of joy, because I think sometimes we really try and manufacture it, and really he's saying, hey, I'm right here the whole time.
[00:03:02] Delight yourself in me. I'll give you more of me.
[00:03:05] Okay?
[00:03:06] Old Testament, we See this from. We see conversations about joy from the prophets. Isaiah 61:10 says, I delight greatly in the Lord. My soul rejoices in my God. This illustration of just a deep joy that comes from knowing and experiencing God.
[00:03:26] Are you showing that to your kids?
[00:03:30] Are they able to watch you experience joy in the Lord? That's what this is talking about here.
[00:03:36] We see it again in Jeremiah. The prophet declares, your words are found, and I ate them.
[00:03:43] Your words became to me joy. And it delighted my heart, man, for my kid to say that about me like that. My dad found joy in the word of the Lord. Whoo.
[00:03:55] I would love that.
[00:03:57] That should be, like, our desire, parents. That should be our hope that they would see us delight in him. In the New Testament, Jesus includes it in the fruit of the spirit.
[00:04:09] Joy, right? This is as a believer, as someone who is striving to walk with the Lord. It should be produced in our life.
[00:04:18] And then we see in James just this reiteration of the fact that it's not circumstantial.
[00:04:25] Consider it joy, my brothers.
[00:04:27] When you face trials for the testing of your faith produces endurance.
[00:04:33] And the last one I want to mention, because I think it gets overlooked, is like a joyous moment is the story of the prodigal son.
[00:04:43] There's a lot in the story of the prodigal son, right? But then you have this incredible moment where this dad is watching and waiting and anticipating, and the sun comes home, and then there's running and hugging and probably jumping and screaming, and then there's a party, right? There's this huge story of joy that takes place here.
[00:05:11] And so it's all throughout scripture for us to learn from, for us to look at.
[00:05:18] That's the wrong page.
[00:05:23] Oh, no, it's not. Sorry.
[00:05:26] Common missteps.
[00:05:28] This is a great transition, thinking that we have to create it all the time, thinking that it's our job as the parent to create these experiences.
[00:05:43] Listen, often your child is going to create joy on their own.
[00:05:49] They're going to have a moment, and we often overlook it.
[00:05:59] I saw a video podcast with Jack Black on it, and he was sharing a story about a dad whose kid was out playing in the mud and the sticks.
[00:06:12] And the dad had planned a very expensive day where they were gonna go and they were gonna go to this adventure park, and it was gonna be this big thing, and ultimately they were gonna get exhausted and tired and crying and you've been there and all the things.
[00:06:27] And the podcast guy ends up and he's like, yeah, I really wonder what he's gonna say at the funeral though, is he gonna talk about that or is he gonna say, I remember the day my dad came out and got in the mud with us so many times our kids are having moments of joy and we just like completely overlook it. And so I just want to encourage you to be on the lookout for it. Okay? I'm not saying that the Disney trip is bad, right?
[00:06:56] We're trying.
[00:06:58] But I am saying that there are few like that.
[00:07:03] They're more often ones that happen all the time and we don't even see them that way when we really could capitalize on the moment that's actually taking place in the life of our kid. Okay, Common missteps. That was the first one.
[00:07:22] Not setting the example of delighting ourselves in the Lord.
[00:07:30] And this is a big one because of all the stuff I mentioned earlier, the pressure, the work, the stuff, the bills.
[00:07:37] And so a common misstep for us would be not setting that as an example for our home.
[00:07:43] Not setting that as an example that our kids would experience, even on a semi regular basis, our delight in the Lord.
[00:07:52] And so I want to challenge you, what would that look like for you in your context, for your kids to know that about your life when you delight in the Lord? And what does that look like?
[00:08:05] Common misstep. Assuming, love y', all, assuming that the thing that brings you joy is the thing that brings them joy.
[00:08:15] Right?
[00:08:17] You ready?
[00:08:19] Just because the sport brought you joy doesn't mean it brings them joy.
[00:08:25] They may see that it makes you happy and so they keep doing it.
[00:08:29] But I think we're in the place of real conversations that the things that bring you joy might not bring them joy.
[00:08:38] And we as the parent have to find the things that they are able to delight in the Lord in.
[00:08:46] I got blessed with an opportunity a couple years ago to lead an 8th grade small group on Sunday morning. And I asked them how, how they worshiped Friday night on the football field.
[00:08:57] And a couple of them connected with that, the rest of them didn't.
[00:09:02] What are the things that your kid can actively take part in and it causes them to delight in the Lord.
[00:09:10] That's what we're talking about here. Okay?
[00:09:14] Lastly, man, time flies when you're having fun. Lastly, this generation celebrates the least of all the generations of all time, ever, ever.
[00:09:27] So start celebrating things.
[00:09:30] My mom and my mother in law are completely different people.
[00:09:34] One of them really likes to celebrate stuff and one of them doesn't celebrate anything.
[00:09:40] And I really like celebrating stuff. Now it's this Whole new thing that was added to my life when I got married. And we celebrate birthday and we celebrate Valentine's Day and Shamrock Day and all the things.
[00:09:53] And we celebrate, and it's awesome.
[00:09:56] This generation really. You need to hear that. As somebody who's with teenagers all the time, this generation really doesn't celebrate stuff. Well, we have a role in their lives right now while they are under our care to help them see that we can celebrate things. And ultimately in that, we point them to Jesus.
[00:10:16] And so I really want to push you in that.
[00:10:18] Wow. Practical tips. Okay.
[00:10:22] We like to say this about bad stuff, but we're gonna say it about joy. See something, say something.
[00:10:28] You've heard that about bad stuff. I have to say it at camp and stuff.
[00:10:33] If you see joy happen, you should capitalize on that. Get in on some of that. Say something to your kid. You see something, say something. Okay. Set the example. Like I said before, how are you delighting in the Lord? Be the one to set the example in your family.
[00:10:49] Let your child be the director of how they find joy and then celebrate.
[00:10:55] Look, joy is to be celebrated. True delight comes from the Lord and should be capitalized on when it's seen out there on the table.
[00:11:04] As long as I put it back. Is this 30 day devotional? This would be a great thing. This is out by Lifeway students. If you've got a teenager at home and you would want to do a diva with your kid, it would be great. It's a good one. It's super easy. It's only that much. 30 days.
[00:11:20] It's on delight in the Lord. Okay, all right. No more joy.
