Getting Back to Joy

We all like to be happy, don’t we? Real, deep happiness is called “joy,” and it is something God wants us to experience every day. But often we lose our joy because something goes wrong. It may be because the dog gets in our way and our drink spills. Or it might be our own fault, when we are not thinking of others and make them mad.

The children on the front cover learned that there was a path back to joy when things went wrong. Their parents helped them to find it. How did the little girl get from sad to happy again? She let her mom clean up the mess and comfort her. She was thankful for a new drink. Those are good things to remember when accidents happen and others get in our way. Instead of holding onto anger and blame, we can let the problem get fixed and be happy again. How about the boy playing with his stick? How did he get from making others angry to becoming friends? He learned to stop thinking about what he wanted and to think of a way to bless others. Giving food or drink can be a good way to be reconciled with our enemies. The Bible calls it “overcoming evil with good.” When you show that you want to be friends, you will find that others want that, too! That is the path back to joy.

Sometimes the path back to joy isn’t easy to find. Sometimes it is blocked by such bad things that we don’t think we can ever feel truly happy again. It might be because of the wrong-doing or sin that others have done to us, or the guilt of wrongs that we have done. We can’t fix these sins or do enough good things to be reconciled, no matter how hard we try. But Jesus can. He suffered and died to take away our sin and make a way back to God and His joy again. Do you know a verse that talks about that? See Hebrews 12:2.

Jesus told a story that shows how we can take this path. Can you help fill in the missing parts?

Once there was son that wanted freedom and fun. He asked his father for his __________ and went to a far country to spend it all in wild __________. But __________ times came and the son realized that he didn’t have any friends or money left. He went to work for a farmer and wished that he could eat the __________ that he fed the pigs. At last he __________ about his father. He remembered how good he was to his __________ and decided to go __________. “I am not worthy to be his __________ anymore, but I will ask to be his __________,” he told himself. But when his __________ saw him coming, he __________ to him and __________ him. The son confessed that he had __________ and wasn’t __________ to be his son. But the father said, “Let us eat and be __________! My son was __________ and is __________ again!”

(See Luke 15:11-24)