Bring Your Bucket!
Isaiah 12:3a
With joy you will draw water from the wells of salvation.
Don’t you love how the Lord sends the perfect word at the perfect time? This week has been rough for us here at home. My two-year-old daughter’s tantrums have increased, meaning that the general background noise for my writing is toddler-ish shrieks of “NO” to mommy downstairs. Then my six-year-old son, who is usually very tender toward Megan, has begun talking back constantly, whining over the smallest things, and turning even fun assignments into angry outbursts. So a few minutes ago, before I rushed upstairs to work, we huddled together as a family and sang an old children’s chorus as a benediction for the day ahead: “The Joy of the Lord is My Strength.” I didn’t realize how much I needed that reminder! It struck me that joy is effectively the bucket-on-a-rope that dips deep into that well of salvation and draws up life-sustaining water. Without joy, our spirits become anemic, our energy to love and serve wanes, and our anxiety over trivial things rises.
“He gives me living water and I thirst no more,” says the song-writer in verse three of that children’s chorus, and I invite you to join me in singing that as your benediction for the day ahead.