God has put something noble and good into every heart his hand has created. So while living on earth we must always remember to learn from yesterday, hope for tomorrow and live for today with joy. It’s never irresponsible to truly enjoy our moments.

Because when we live with joy, we create more value for all of our God-given life. In joy we can see the beauty. In the beauty we can feel our purpose. Let go of our ideas of what should or should not be. Be joyful simply because we can, right where we are, with all we have. Joy is a gift we give to life that comes back to us the moment we give it. Give it often and give it wholeheartedly. Feel joy, be joy and give joy. Then find even more joy in the positive difference it makes. Here's a nice composition derived from a forwarded email.

"Joy of the Lord" is really just a state of mind and a state of heart. It is being thankful because we know, first and foremost, that God has given us eternal life in a world of happiness. It is remembering that, above all the frustration and turmoil  we may be experiencing in our present state, or the lethargy or boredom that we have with our present circumstances, when it comes down to it, we realize what the priorities of life are what our life is all about.

To regain our joy of the Lord, we have to look past all our other priorities; all the things that keep us busy, all the things that bore us. We have to realize that, despite all those things‚ we have already obtained the most valuable prize we could possibly gain in any walk of life: Eternal life!

Whether we are a successful world leader or a simple person, because we know the Lord, we have the asset of the joy of the Lord deep within our heart. We can keep this asset no matter what anybody does to us, and no matter what circumstances we may find ourself in. It's like we've already won the main, top prize, eternal life in heaven and the extremely wonderful thing about it is: We can never lose it!

This time period we are living in is very short and temporary and "passes away" (Matthew 24:35), day by day, but our spirit is saved and lives on forever.

The joy of the Lord is to realize: that we are a sinner, but God has forgiven us; that He unconditionally loves us and will never give up on us; that at any point when we reach out and take His hand, He will take it immediately into His and forgive us.

The joy of the Lord is realigning our priorities in proper order and proper perspective. All these other nagging, incomplete, and sometimes frustrating details, that are imperfect and that tend to get us down‚ are really insignificant points that will some day pass away. Yet our spirit will remain and live for eternity.

The joy of the Lord is fixing our gaze, which determines our attitude and actions, on the eternal values that we'll be living by forever, and cut ourself loose from the temporary setbacks.

We will be among those who fulfill the Scripture,"The spirits of just men made perfect" (Hebrews 12:23). Perfect in love, perfect in joy, perfect in creation—that's us! That's where we're headed. Regaining our joy is realizing the truth of this, and not being set back by the façades of the temporal! The joy of the Lord is our strength! (Nehemiah 8:10b)

 

There is Someone who knows and understands your every thought and feeling—the pleasure and the pain, the joy and the sorrow—and who perceives the deepest needs and longings of your heart.