The Happiness Lie and 6 Counter-intuitive Truths About Joy
I am honored to have my writing featured today on the Hargraves Home and Hearth website today!
“My phone dings and I reach for it instinctively. I click on the social media notification to see a picture of a friend, beaming at me. In her hand she holds an ultrasound photo, with a perfect silhouette of a baby’s profile. Another one? This has to be the third pregnancy announcement I’ve seen for various friends this week alone. I linger over the image. An indention for the eye, a protrusion for the nose, and two sweet puckered lips. One tiny hand reaches up with fingers curled, eager to greet his mother in a few short months.
In my hand? The phone. The screen displaying everyone’s abounding bliss and excitement over the promise of new life. I toss it on the sofa with a sigh and pad down the hall. I stop just outside the door of the silent nursery and my breath catches painfully in my chest. How long should I keep the crib up? It’s been almost a year. Mourning the loss from the miscarriage had brought me just short of my breaking point. And now the waiting is unbearable. Month after month. How long until it’s my turn? Does God care? Where is He? If He loves me, why doesn’t He fix this?”
When I dig down beneath the tumbling emotions to discover the thought driving them all, it surprises me. ‘Having a baby will make me happy.’
But here is the problem- the foundation of this reasoning is flawed. The object of our affection cannot guarantee joy.
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