JOY! SILENCE WILL STEAL IT!
HOW MANY PEOPLE IN YOUR LIFE ARE JOYFUL?
How do you know or perceive they are joyful?
In recent observations, I am realizing that in order to fully live in joy, we MUST “EXPRESS” JOY.
WE INFUSE JOY into our life and into the world around us by catching and expressing those thoughts that are pleasant and happy to us, thoughts that make our burdens lighter and our spirit free.
There are many ways to express joy. Speaking it out loud is a great way to catch, express and infuse joy into your life, whether to yourself or sharing it with others. Expressing joy with actions and movements alongside what you speak is like the volume button for the degree you will experience it.
Consider this. You wake up and look outside. You see the sun is shining, the sky is blue and everything is in bloom. All seems well with the world. What is the difference between the levels of joy you will experience if:
1. You don’t say anything at all… (and go on thinking other things)
2. If you say “Oh! This is beautiful! I just love it!…..
3. If you say “Oh! This is beautiful!” and then clap your hands, start singing or do a little happy-dance?
Which of these three reactions will cause you to “experience or live” the joy most fully?
Consider another scenario. Someone gives you a gift or does something for you that you really like. You have the thought that it is wonderful. What is the level of the joy you and they will experience from that thought if:
1. You don’t say anything at all…
2. If you say “Wow! Thank you! How wonderful!”
3. If you say “Thanks so much!” and you twirl around, or you give the person a hug?
How about love? Have you ever questioned when someone says they have joy or are thankful because you have not seen or heard any evidence or expression? While it may be a thought on the highway of their minds, there are many other thoughts travelling alongside that thought. Thoughts expressed become our life and experience. This would include relationships as well that we live and experience.
It works the same way for depression, faith and every other possible state we could live in.
If there is no expression through words or action, it’s just another thought on the highway of your mind not yet experienced, lived or made real. If you have depressing thoughts and you express them through your facial expression and phsyiology (head “down”, shoulders slouched “down”), or verbally through saying “I feel so depressed”, you will infuse depression into your life. It will be what you experience and live.
Perhaps that’s why it is said that “faith without works is dead”. While you might have thoughts of faith, until you actually express it in some way, you are not living or experiencing faith. It is dead. It is not real. How are you expressing and living your faith today?
In order to make a cup of tea, we “infuse” a tea bag into a teapot or cup of hot water. That water is just water until the tea starts to infuse throughout the water, at which point it is no longer a cup of hot water. It is a cup of tea. It has been transformed. Our lives also will be transformed by what we infuse into them today.
Express thankfulness! And you will “BE” thankful, and live a thankful life!
Express faith! And you will live, experience and walk in faith today!
Express joy! And experience living a joyful life today!
Do not live silent. Do not remain silent. Silence is your enemy to living in joy! Turn up the volume! Express It! Speak It! Shout! Laugh! Clap! Dance! Sing It! Act It! Live It! Feel It! Experience It!
Be Blessed!