What a day! Wine streaming off the mountains, milk rivering out of the hills, water flowing everywhere in Judah, a fountain pouring out of God’s Sanctuary, watering all the parks and gardens! – Joel 3:18

When I was growing up, I would help Mom with washing dishes. After we got all the dishes washed, dried, and put up, she’d get out a clean plate, put some homemade cookies on it, get us both some homemade lemonade, and we’d sit down to celebrate the fact that the dishes were all taken care of! Well, except for the plates and cups that we had just gotten dirty—but those would be taken care of with the next dish washing day.  

The thing is, I learned that it’s ok to celebrate accomplishments. So often, when we finish up one project, we start heading towards the next in line without acknowledging the accomplishment of completing something.

Have you ever had a time when it felt like you were pushing a boulder uphill in strong straight-line winds blowing in from the side? It may be trying to teach the kids to throw away the empty milk cartons rather than put them back in the refrigerator. It may be trying to teach your Irish wolfhound to stop jumping up on company. It may be trying to stay on a budget. We’ve all had those times when we’d like to throw up our hands, turn around, and head towards the nearest chocolate bar!

If we could teach ourselves to stop in our tracks, take a deep breath, and look back at how far we’ve come, it might give us courage to continue on. It doesn’t take much, but if we can see progress of any kind, it’s amazing how much easier it is to keep moving forward.

Joel is a funny little book in the Bible. It seems that there was a plague of locusts in the country. They ravaged the countryside, eating everything in sight and leaving the country in sad shape. Joel likens these locusts to an invading army and talks about how rotten they were. Chapter three talks about how God will repay all those who treated his people badly. He’ll round them all up and give them what-for!  

Without an appropriate celebration, it’s too easy to become discouraged. If all you have is the struggle, what’s the point? It’s when we realize the importance of what we’re doing and recognizing that we are doing it well, that we can keep going. This scripture is at the end of the chapter and the book. When the bad guys are all dealt with, God’s children will be in tall cotton! There will be an abundance of water, milk, and wine. There will probably be a big plate of cookies and a tall pitcher of ice-cold lemonade! All we have to do is to put one foot in front of the other and look forward to the celebration afterward.

Becky Gillette is a former teacher, newspaper reporter, and preacher who seeks to take an original approach to life’s lessons. She has recently published her first book, Jessie’s Corner: Something To Think About, which is now available for purchase. Based on several lesser-known scriptures from the Bible, this is a collection of articles which she wrote for a weekly newspaper.