Joy

Before school started this morning, during morning assembly, a kindergarten boy came up to me with a stamp in his hand and held it out.  He wanted to stamp my hand.  Of course, I stuck my hand out with a smile on my face and said "yes!  I would love a stamp!  Thank you!" Then he proceeded to stamp my hand.  It was lime green and maybe half an inch.  It read "joy".  You can still barely see it on my hand at 4:36 in the afternoon (and many times of washing my hands during the day).

I find it ironic that the stamp he had today said "joy".  I could paint you a word picture of this kindergartener and there's many things I could say about him. Like most six year old boys you will encounter, he is full of wonder, life, emotions, questions and most importantly, full of joy.  I could have told the boy I didn't want a stamp, but you see that would have killed his joy.  I'm sure he didn't know it when he stamped my hand this morning that his stamp would be that important to me.  He didn't realize that when he stamped my hand he was sharing his joy with me.

Today was a day in which I needed to be reminded of joy.  I needed to be reminded that no matter how many times someone tries to steal my joy, I am ultimately the only responsible for my own joy.  People can spread joy, but only you can accept it and only you can choose to spread it.  My joy was threatened today.  My spirit was a little broken.  People in this world can be so cruel.  We live in  a time when people are don't get all the facts before they make a judgement and with the use of social media people can hide behind their phones and computers and pretend like their words don't hurt.  But every time I caught a glimpse of my left hand today, I saw the word joy.  And even though it is not as bright as it was this morning, it is still there.  

Even though I may not shine as brightly as I did several hours ago, I'm still shining.  I still have joy.  

Funny the lessons we can learn from a 6 year old, huh?