On a small table in my kitchen, I have three Christmas-scarf-clad polar bears - about 4 inches in height, forming the word JOY by their antics. They stand pretty erect.

But the other day, I don't think I touched the table but some of my activity near it, caused all three small bears to tip over.

As I watched the bears lying on their faces, I thought about us. Does some thing in our lives cause our joy to be 'tipped over' for a time. If we are 'down', how long does it take us to get back up?

Joy must be something pretty important. I checked on www.biblegateway.com and nearly 250 times the word is included.

Is it us in charge of our  'joy'? Or God?

 "Always be JOYFUL" - 1 Thessalonians 5:16. One of the gifts of God's Holy Spirit is 'JOY' - Ephesians 5:22.  "Heart, body, and soul are filled with JOY" - Psalm 16:9.

As Christian, we receive JOY as one of the many gifts given to us by God. Not because of what we have done. Nor how we think. It's a free gift, regardless of how we 'feel'. We 'always' possess that JOY!

If life happens to bump us, and our 'joy' takes a nosedive like my Christmas bears, no matter. We still have our God-given JOY!

Dear Father in Heaven, thank You for the gift of JOY. Sometimes I don't believe it. Nor feel it. Help me. I want to praise with Your Joy, whether I feel like or act like it or not. Your Son was born, lived, and died to give us JOY and whole bunch of other things. So today we are going to praise You. In His Name we pray. Amen.