Joy is a sign of Strength!
I love music. Good music. It gets me where I need to go…and in this house I need to go go.
I married a drummer turned guitarist. We have a room devoted to instruments.
So after the first time I have ever heard good music come out of the little church we visit…I went up to the twenty something girl with the guitar….
“Wow best music I have ever heard here,” I said enthused that a new tide had come in and things may change.
She smiled
and then in a prepared tone,
“Oh it’s not me….”she said looking down with a canned smile.
Deflated…
I remarked, “I know I know…”
wistfully I gave her another chance,
“yes but I have waited so long for good music…”
She shook her head and looked down
as she knew she was supposed to
“I just play”…
the way she had seen others respond….
false humilty.
There was no strength…no joy.
No joy of the Lord was her strength… all false humility about “me” and “I”… no glory given…just trained false humility.
You know the routine… you have been taught….it’s not her fault…we all trained her to take no joy.
To have no strength in the Lord.
To take only weakness and claim “Me” and “I” in a pseudo humility that gives no glory but only talks about ourselves.
This tide needs to change again… We need to rejoice!
We need the joy of the Lord to be our strength.
Because when we go the way of false humility we shut others down from the joy of the Lord
..the strength…
we turn the conversation to us….
and instead rejoicing in the fact that we are being used…
we are co-creating… we have relationship
I am amazed that God has so much to do and yet He takes time
every
single
day
to hang out
with me.
The Joy of the Lord IS my strength and I am Dang proud of it!
Did you write a 5 Minute Friday or art to include over at Studio Jr? Please leave a comment so I can find you art…whatever it may be!!!! Loving Fridays a little more each week!!~T
A Seed Inspired 
My favorite post. I love the “calling out of” false humility and the pics of the crab crawling back in it’s hole. I pray that girl gets some revelation and confidence in what she really is being used for….
Yes the “calling out”…
glad you stopped by…
T
Beautiful post. May HE use you to bring her Joy. I can only imagine how that could change the heart of the church. Praising Him is so essential to who He’s called us to be.
That’s a really good point.
I hope I can inspire younger women to shake off that false humility…
I don’t know quite how I would convey that to her.
T
I so agree with you! I have taught others in the counseling room that true humility is agreeing with God…if He has made you with a talent and you are using it to His glory, a “thank you” and “isn’t He good!” is a much better response! Thank you for this great post!…
You go girl!
Love it!
T
This is a great post…maybe it hits me because just the other day a friend called me out…she gave me a compliment and I did that thing…what she saw was joy…yes it is His joy…but in my response I did not rejoice in the fact that He was visible…for that I should have done a cartwheel…well that could have been interesting…a whole new level of humbling:)
Thanks… I love when God speaks something to my heart and He speaks the same truth in different way.
Blessings…have a great weekend at the beach.
it’s like confirmation right?
love it too!
T
“We need the joy of the Lord to be our strength”. Perfectly put. Thanks for this inspiring post ‘T’.
Rosanne
Glad you liked it!
Thanks,
T
beautiful post….and so true!
The joy of the Lord is my strength…AMEN!!
Thank you,
T
A beautiful reminder, thank you. Yes, and so very yes, the joy of the LORD is our strength! Thank you Jesus!
Blessings xo,
Debbie
Great post – I thought of that verse today too. I love the way you put it, false humility does make it about us instead of about Him. It is time to stop that, isn’t it?!
sure is!
I am guilty of it along with everyone else.
Somewhere as humans we pick it up as an attribute…and it totally is not!
T
may we encourage each other to have real joy … loved this!
Oh I am so glad you came and enjoyed it.
I am blessed by you coming by.
T
Wonderful post, thank you. Thank you also for your comments on my blog. I think it’s good to be (gently) passionate about the gifts and joys God gives us. Sometimes we need others to help us recognise them. He has made each of us unique and we need to receive and rejoice in that.
True!
Thanks for coming and being such an encouragement!
T
Trained humility…yes. Your words moved me and resonated long after the read. I wrestle with how do I pass it along to my daughter – the trueness of God’s gifts and strengths? Am I practicing true humility right so she sees?
Thank you for this.
All thru Him,
Cin
Oh I do to! I am right there with you.
After hearing this on the beach… I was just feeling so watchful of how I do this with my own daughters.
Because somewhere along our growth we go from being gracious when someone compliments…to false humility.
I want my daughters…and all my sons too… to be assured and walk with strength.
I am SO glad you brought this up here !
PLEASE please come back, you are thought provoking.
T
This made me sad.
I love your pretty art work.
I hope she finds the joy in her beautiful music that is a gift from God soon!
me too.
Thank you for your compliment.
T
A hearty amen to that! Well said.