Joy Can Return - Day 14

Joy Can Return
Day 14

It does get better, you will experience joy again.

In her book A Passage Through Grief, Barbara Baumgardner writes, "They told me one day I would go twenty-four hours without thinking of my loss. I told them they were crazy."

"They weren't crazy; they were right. At first, I felt guilt, then elation." 1

God is the source of your hope and joy. Believe these words of Jesus in John 16: "I tell you the truth, you will weep and mourn while the world rejoices. You will grieve, but your grief will turn to joy" (v. 20).

Jesus continued: "A woman giving birth to a child has pain because her time has come; but when her baby is born she forgets the anguish because of her joy that a child is born into the world.

"So with you: Now is your time of grief, but I will see you again and you will rejoice, and no one will take away your joy" (vv. 21-22).

Lord, I cannot even remember what joy feels like, but I believe that someday You will turn my grief to joy, and no one will take that joy away from me. Amen.

1. Barbara Baumgardner, A Passage Through Grief (Nashville: Broadman and Holman Publishers, 1997), 95. Used by permission.

~ I long for that day when I can go 24 hrs without reliving, rehashing or questioning those times of my losses. A full day when joy replaces the pain of the mourning and a smile is my best feature.  I am prayerful and hopeful. This is what I can do to await this time. It is promised in the bible that my mourning will turn to joy. So, as I truly start to believe it, so it shall be.