Would you be joyful if...

    Joy. Not happiness, but joy. That is what we need in our lives. Pure, perfect joy. As outsiders, many people think that Americans should be filled to the top with endless joy. I mean, we have all the necessities in life plus more, from T.V's in our cars to flowing hot water with the snap of our fingers. Yet, as an outsider would look around America, there is more sadness and want for more then anywhere else in the world. Through all generations, good is never enough... but why not? All that we have should make us enlightened to live, but Americans cannot take the time to open their eyes enough to see how blessed they are, because they are to worried about what they can get next. Take it from one little boy that I heard on the plane, "There's no TV's? You've got to be kidding me! I'm so done." This little boy was about ten years old... and I would love to have put him in the shoes of the Nicaraguans I met on this trip for just one day.
  We all hear about the poverty in the world, but we do not realize how hard they have it until we hear it from them. Over the course of spring break, I heard a lot of comments about life from Nicaraguans that I was unaware of... and it made me think. How joyful would our lives be if we lived like they do? Would our smiles be genuine, like theirs? Would we be willing to help the others in our country, even though we have next to nothing? Would we greet the Americans, that we know have so much, with open arms?

Just think, how joyful would you be if...

You only had one meal a day- and to get to that meal you had to walk at least 5 miles... sometimes with a baby on your back. Oh, and you are only six.

You went to stay in a hotel, and you thought that big white swirly thing was to wash your hands... because you've never used a real toilet. Or, you thought the liquidity stuff by the sink was to put in your hair... because you never knew what hand soap was.

You had to be at work at 7 a.m, or your job would be given to someone else. But, to get there- you had to walk 30 min from home, then 30 min back for lunch, to work again, and finally at 5, home again.

Your salary at the end of the month was $200, $2,400 a year if you had no weeks off... and that is if you were a teacher, less if you did manual labor. That would be less than $1 an hour.

You had to sleep on a picnic table every single night, because there was no bed for you to claim as your own... and you are only seventeen.

People live like this. Every single day of their life. But, they radiate joy. They radiate a sense of pure satisfaction with their lives... they feel blessed to be in the position that they are. Would you? If you were handed those cards in life, would you feel blessed?

I would love to take every American child to Nicaragua so that they could learn, so that they could see what happiness is really about. It is not about the brand names you wear, or if there are T.V's on the plane... it is about what God blessed us with, and how we react to them.