May You Have Enough

May You Have Enough

May your joys be as bright as the morning,

and your sorrows merely be shadows that fade in the sunlight of love.

May you have enough happiness to keep you sweet,

enough trials to keep you strong,

enough sorrow to keep you human,

enough hope to keep you happy,

enough failure to keep you humble,

enough success to keep you eager,

enough friends to give you comfort,

enough faith and courage in yourself to banish sadness,

enough wealth to meet your needs and one thing more;

enough determination to make each day a more wonderful day than the one before.

I was recently reminded of wishing 'enough' for someone by a dear friend. I was charmed by the thought, and of course had to Google it. I found this Irish blessing and am amazed that I'd never come across it before. I mean I am half Irish, and have been to Ireland once, so therefore I think I know all things Irish lol!

'Having enough' really reminded me how similar our society today is with the Israelites of Jeremiah's day. Like the Israelites, we seem to never have enough. We don't worship Baal and other stone carvings, no, our culture has a more subtle relationship with idolatry. Our idols are anything that we spend more time and effort focusing on other than God.  So many things of this world lure us away from God. Because of this, we often tend to forget what is most important. Our relationship with God should be the number one thing, of the utmost importance in our lives. Our world glorifies the thrill that comes from wealth, competition, the persuit of pleasure, and it ignores the sin that is often associated with these thrills.

We never seem to have enough, we always want more. This really became apparent to me when I was able to go to Ireland a few  years ago. It was my first trip abroad and while struck with the beauty of the Emerald Isle, I was also charmed by its people. Their friendly, 'never met a stranger attitude' of course, but what I found remarkable was their happiness with 'enough.' They weren't all out to have bigger and better houses, cars and wardrobes. I loved that feeling I got, realizing that there wasn't this incessant need for more. We can learn a lot from the old Testament and from the Irish, by wishing for enough.