Almost every morning I wake up singing the song, “Today is the day that the Lord has made, I will rejoice and be glad in it!” (Psalm 118:24) But, that doesn’t mean that I am always waking up ready to rejoice and be glad. My morning ritual started a long time ago when I simply had the song stuck in my head for a few days. Eventually, I realized that that is such an amazing way to start my day and I began to intentionally sing the song to myself every morning no matter how I felt that day. Sometimes we are in a season in which it is really easy to rejoice in the Lord and the days that He has made. Occasionally though we have to make a choice to rejoice.
Lately, my life has been a bit wavy. What I mean by that is that the good times and the bad times keep coming in waves. Sometimes they are gentle, relaxing waves, such as time spent with my kids or a nice walk outdoors, and other times they are relentless and punishing, hitting me with the force of waves crashing into the shore during a storm. But no matter what, each day is the day that the Lord has made and I intend to rejoice and be glad in it.
I don’t believe that rejoicing in each day means that we should overlook the bad days or that we should pretend that everything is wonderful all the time. What I think that it means is to have faith that all things are working for our good (Romans 8:28) and that the Lord is deserving of praise all the time.
Yesterday was a bad day for me. I was sick and I am struggling with a few things personally. But, God made that day, He gave me the opportunity to live that day to the best of my abilities. I would love to tell you that my Bible verse mantra has made me live everyday with unwavering appreciation for the Lord and for the gift of each day, but truthfully, I am still working on it. Yesterday was tough and it took a lot of prayer and honestly, whining to get through it. But this morning I woke up singing and I intend to spend the day rejoicing. I will continue to put my faith in the Lord and make the choice everyday to rejoice.