Perfect Joy

Psalm 16:11 -- "You make known to me the path of life; you will fill me with joy in your presence, with eternal pleasures at your right hand."

Taking a deep, zen-like breath through my nose and exhaling softly through my mouth I started to count to ten in my head. No matter how often I explained how to come up with the correct answer in his workbook, Tyler would argue his way out of doing it right. Time and time again my youngest child came up with a reason why the tips and tricks I'd shown him were just not going to work. Even reminding him that the quiz was open-book could not get him out of the anxious funk in which he was so determined to stay. I was at my wits end.

A perfectionist - much like myself - Tyler wanted to pen the answer to his essay question to match, nearly word for word, the definition provided him in his History book. By the end of the fourth time he'd erased his work to start over again I could see the tears begin to pool in the corners of his eyes - and I was ready to pull my hair out.

While this little academic adventure hasn't happened in years - I can remember those tense moments at Tyler's desk like they were yesterday. I have to smile at the memory of them because I can look backward on those harry monsters and see how very far we've all come in our journey through home based education. Reading Psalm 16:11 today made me think back on some pretty rough days as a homeschooling parent. That might sound like a strange thing to say - but think about the things in your life that you associate with joy. For me, it was a smooth day with the boys in our class room, a neatly made bed before breakfast, a fully dusted house and freshly vacuumed carpet -- order and calm. Perfectly planned menus that match the family budget and by-one-get-one-free sales at our local supermarket were sheer heaven. For Tyler, it was getting his essay question perfect.

Making a list of all the things that are supposed to provide us with happy lives sure does explain why so many of us seem so very miserable most of the time.

I once met a young woman in my Sunday School class that was so determined that marriage was her answer to happiness that she rushed into a relationship with the first person to really ask her out. She jumped on his marriage proposal, had a beautiful wedding - only to find later that he was unfaithful, abusive, and cruel. The marriage - the thing that was supposed to be her happiness - ended in divorce.

I knew a young man once that pushed himself to make the highest grades in high school, to earn his college degree faster than anyone else and land the highest paying job in our graduating class.  He did all this - only to have a mid-life crisis by the time he was forty, to look around and suddenly discover that his kids were gown without having really spent any quality time with them, and he ended up in the hospital with some pretty severe digestive tract issues.

While checking out at Wal-mart the other day I overheard a trio of ladies discussing the chosen colleges of their recently graduated children. It was interesting to hear them ever-so-subtly comparing acceptance letters with one another. It made me wonder what their children really thought about school. It made wonder if the three of them were the true BFF's they pretended to be for each other.

Yep, chasing the elusive, so-called joyful life has made a great majority of humanity terrifically miserable. The thing is - we don't have to chase joy at all. The Bible is very clear on where to find it. It's in the presence of our Lord.

I can think of nothing better, nothing more perfectly pleasing than to be in the presence of God. To find eternal treasures at His right hand. To worship Him. To thank Him. To adore Him face to face.

Everything else seems trivial, don't you think?