For the Joy of the Lord is your strength. Nehemiah 8:10
The Joy of Discovery, watercolor by Lee Boynton
The disciples came to Jesus and asked, "who is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven?"
Jesus called a little child and had him stand among them. And He said:"I tell you the truth, unless you change and become like little children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven. Therefore, whoever humbles himself like this child is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven. And whoever welcomes a little child like this in my name welcomes me. Matthew 18:1-5
A Childlike Heart, by Claire Cloninger from my Women's Devotional Bible
I used to be a little baffled by Nehemiah 8:10: "For the joy of the Lord is your strength." To me, that verse never made much sense, because joy didn't seem to be all that strong a quality. I thought it would have made more sense if it had said, "The strength of the Lord is your joy."
But the longer I live, the more I realize that the ability to find joy in life really is a tremendous strength. The people who can laugh are the strong ones. The people who can throw their heads back and delight in the joy of the moment are going to live a lot longer than those of us who are stressed and pushed and taking ourselves terribly seriously...
Children really are good at open-hearted, spontaneous joy. They know it intuitively. That's why they use it lavishly in the present moment. They don't put it in a savings account for a rainy day. They don't put it on hold or put a lid on it. They spend it with abandon. They practice it at every small occasion. That's why they are such pros and getting it right!