My mother taught me a little song that taught me about JOY – “Jesus and Others and You, What a wonderful way to spell JOY!”  OK, this works in English, but maybe not so well in Spanish.

  Guess what, I have just taught all you readers of Familias Felices a wonderful word in English!!  Joy means gozo in Spanish.  The acronym tells me to put Jesus first, others second and myself third.  Now, I know that the Bible teaches us to value others as much we value ourselves.  The Bible teaches us that we are made in the image of God, so our value is not measurable.  I need to be confident in myself so I can value without fear or jealousy the contributions of others.  But this acronym in English for JOY has been important to me as I think of others.  

If I put Jesus first in my life, I’ll do my very best to imitate the sacrificial and humble life He lived as an example for us.  Often after a hard day of serving others, he would try to escape across a lake for quiet time with God the Father.  More times than not, crowds found Him and demanded for more of His time.  In the 2nd chapter of book that Paul wrote to the Philippians, we read that we should imitate Christ who left immortality to take on the form and limitations of the mortal beings He created – even suffering cruel and unjust punishment by their hands.  Is my first goal in life to emulate this God of love?

When I put others interests ahead of my own, I am practicing humility.  For 25 years I was in Health Care Administration in the United States of America.  My success, the livelihood I used to sustain my family and my professional satisfaction was entirely based on competition.  I had to show I was always right.  I had to ruthlessly cut excesses in expenses so the Hospital could lower overheads.  I had to beat my competition in order to capture a lucrative market.  I had to set 5 and 10 year goals that would carry me to another level of success and income.  I had to buy a bigger house, a better car… I, I and I.  Did I value my family, friends and others at least as much as I did myself?  Is there value to the acronym in English  for JOY?  Think about that this week.

None of us are perfect as individuals – nor are our marriages perfect.  As we work together to maintain our love and a strong marriage, our homes will be a good environment for growing and happy children.