When my daughter was little, she would present me with dainty bouquets—composed entirely of weeds. We lived in Portland, Oregon, at the time, and on our few and scattered sunny days, my mini-me would joyfully run through the grass, filling her hands with wispy dandelions and wild daisies. When she gave me her handcrafted bouquets, saying, “Fow-wers for you, mama,” my heart would melt.
As a three-year-old, my little person carried bubbling-over joy. Back then, she didn’t know that she “really needed clothes from H&M” or that she was required to find internship opportunities to be college-ready. She simply found joy in the ordinary.
Children are notably joyful creatures. They jump in puddles. They squeal on slides. They scamper toward grandparents. Their joy is exuberant and uninhibited. But somewhere along the way, they start losing that remarkable joy. Their joy becomes more restrained and more manageable.
While it would be fairly awkward for full-grown adult humans to squeal, scamper, or slosh in puddles, what if we reclaimed joy? Through the mundane years, through seasons of pain, through delays, detours, and dead dreams, our joy has wilted. But could we pray and seek a renewal of joy? It may look different from childish exuberance. It may be a quiet joy—but it will be an abiding joy that is present despite our circumstances.
As adults, we might not run through fields or collect dandelions anymore, but God still invites us to rejoice. How do we do that?
One way we can cultivate that joy is by finding poetry in the prosaic and turning that to praise. Yeah, I went hardcore on the alliteration there, didn’t I? But what do I mean?
Simply put, can we stop to notice the blessings sprinkled throughout our days, and direct our thanks to God?
Psalm 16:1 reminds us that in God’s presence there is fullness of joy. When we invite God’s grace into our daily, difficult days, dreary days, and those downright boring days become days when we can still experience joy.
As author Ann Voskamp says, “Gratitude doesn’t say that we blithely ignore all the excruciating things and simply accept the status quo, but gratitude means that we intentionally notice all the everyday things, and accept God’s grace, in all things, with thanks.”
In the busyness of daily life, moments of fleeting joy get overlooked. We miss out on joy because we don’t pause to see beauty, and we don’t stop to give praise. Just noticing beauty alone can lift our hearts—but when we turn it to thanksgiving, we experience the abounding joy of communing with the Creator.
Like my daughter when she was little, I long to gather flowers among the weeds. I want to make bouquets of thanks to present before the Author of Joy Himself. I long to see the wonder of the ordinary and the beauty of the familiar. And when I do, I will experience the exceeding joy that comes from giving God praise for the prosaic.
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