Pastoral Pearls: Happiness
Happiness is like jam… you can’t spread even a little without getting some on yourself!
Jam is such a simple thing, isn’t it? Who would think that it would ever relay a life message for us? Personally, I think spreading jam is fun! There is room to be creative – I can make a design with the jam or just put it in the middle of the bread, or try ever-so-hard to smear it to the very edges. I have lots of options and possibilities. Same is true of spreading happiness. May sound harder, but not really. There are lots of ways for me to spread happiness and make others’ lives just a bit sweeter, and I can be as creative or as simple as I feel like being in any given moment. I can touch someone’s life with a kind gesture – open the door for them; let their car into the lane in front of me; Smile and wave to someone / anyone – on the road or in person. I can help someone with a project, joyfully. I can do a chore that I know I should do, without grumbling, and perhaps whistling instead – and before I am asked to do it! I can affirm someone with a “Good job!” or “You are so good at that!” or “I wish I could do that or be that way as well as you can/are.” Who doesn’t love a compliment? I can find a sneaky (creative) way of bringing happiness, like sending flowers, or a good joke or an inspirational text, or planning some special surprise, or making a special card or note for someone. I can do the extra, more difficult work – make a special recipe, do a complicated project as a surprise, clean the house. Any way I do it, some of it is going to rub off on me, and, as you may also have experienced before, I will feel better for having brought someone happiness. Let’s spread some jam – some sweetness, some of God’s love! And have fun doing it!
Loving God,
Thank you for the sweetness of jam –
both that YOU bless me with -
and the leftover sweetness that sticks to me when I spread happiness like jam.
Thank you for those times when I have been blessed by that sweetness, from others.
~ Amen