Upon hearing this verse in a chapel message during middle school, my fascination with names began. The speaker had brought with him a comprehensive list of first names in our small school. Many of them had detailed meanings such as "gift from God." My name, Leticia, means "joy." It is a beautiful name, a good name, but rather vague I have often thought. Later, I combined this with my middle name for the fuller meaning "joy is desired." During my teenage years, this definition taught me the power of passive voice and of words with double meanings. I often wondered whether I was "joy" or the unstated indirect object that desires joy. And did desired mean that I myself (as joy) was desirable or that I was lacking joy, that "joy is desired" in my life.
For several years, that latter meaning did apply to me. But I was not who God had made me to be. Oddly enough, one step in my discovery of joy was a personality inventory after which the administrator reluctantly told me that I showed equal tendencies toward two personalities, but that I could choose which one described my true self and improve the strengths that it revealed in me. Then my mother continued to remind me of the joy I truly was. Her picture of a smile or a hug as a refreshing breeze that flits among the leaves and tickles the flower petals helped me to understand my place and purpose in the world. She told me to write down every Bible reference that I found mentioning joy, and so my "Joy Book" began. Soon it grew to include not only Bible verses but also songs, the first flowers of spring, and treasured memories of times with friends. Joy is no longer wanting in my life. Truly, "the joy of the Lord is my strength." (Neh. 8:10)
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