No Greater Joy

3 John 1:4

“I have no greater joy than to hear that my children walk in truth.”


This is true today, even more so than when our children were little. To hear them singing psalms and hymns and praising the Lord is priceless. Samuel goes around singing, "He gives me living water and I thirst no more" or "growing in Christ takes work every day, reading your Bible and Learning to Pray" and he's only 3. When we were in California Scott and the kids came up with names to represent places they often go in life because of moods and choices. The place they want to be at is Happy Hollows. A place of joy, happiness and thankfulness. Quite often they end up in the Miserable Mountains. How did they end up there. They went through the Selfish Slough or down Temper Tantrum Falls, etc. I think you can get the picture. Well, they talked about how to help the younger ones find their way back to Happy Hollows. They send out the "Caring Collies", a group of siblings meant to encourage and love their younger sibling back to a place of happiness, joy and contentment. We're finding that it's a good reminder and Samuel often tells me, "I'm at Happy Hollows". It's accompanied by one of his biggest smiles. That brings a priceless joy to our hearts. He and the others will say, "praise the Lord" when they find something they had lost or they see it's sunny day. Quite often one of them will pull me aside to show me "the beautiful sunrise that God made". God is using them to encourage our hearts each week and we're thankful for his working in all of our hearts. They are still regular, active kids that have their squabbles and struggles through the week, but it's a blessing to see the fruits of the Spirit developing in their lives as they spend more time with the Lord. He's doing a work from within that only HE can do.