J.O.Y.

For day two of K.I.S.S. I thought I would broaden things even more to how we can keep things simple in life.  For me, I strive to focus my life in order to have a biblical perspective to help keep things simple.

I once heard an acronym for experiencing joy.  It goes like this:

J - Jesus

O - Others

Y - Yourself

I think this is such a good, simple reminder of how to focus our priorities each day. With this acronym in mind, it helps us to know what is important and what can be left undone or saved for later.  

So many decisions and responsibilities can crowd our day, but I think this simple acronym helps to remind us, as believers, what is important in life.  Any of the simple ideas I share this week fail quickly if I don't put Christ first in my day.  God's grace allows me to even be able to complete the tasks that I outlined on yesterday's daily magnets.  

I hate to clean, and on days when I get things out of order and move myself up to the top of the list, there really isn't joy in anything I do. But God has called me to be a wife and mom and I'm so thankful for his grace in giving me such blessings.  Keeping Him at the forefront of my days helps me to focus on others before myself.

Here's a little more detail to help us in savoring JOY in our lives.

J is for Jesus: 

In Mark 12:30 we are reminded of the greatest commandment to "love the LORD your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind, and with all your strength."  As we seek to love God with all of our heart, then He must fill us with the love we need to have to love others and love ourselves rightly.

O is for Others:

The second greatest commandment, showing the order of importance, is then seen in Mark 12:31: "You shall love your neighbor as yourself."  Now, how do we love ourselves?  I think most of us would agree that we do pretty well loving ourselves.  We don't have to be taught to think of ourselves first, so we must ask God to help us to put others first.  

Y is for Yourself:

After we have focused on our Savior and others around us, then we are ready to rightly focus on ourselves. The Christian life is about laying down our own life for Christ, who laid down His life for us.  As we focus on Him and others first, we are able, with God's help to be filled with His strength to be able to see ourselves as He sees us.

How are you living simply?

Feel free to link up your posts on keeping your life simple or leave a comment helping us to focus on this today!