As I’m writing, it is Sunday, so that means tomorrow is Monday, which means it’s a good idea to know 5 must-haves for a joyful day. Because Mondays.
To be honest, I’ve never been an overly strategic person, but as I’ve been learning to juggle three part-time jobs plus a family, and desiring to grow one business wider and deeper, it’s essential I learn to strategize. That can flesh itself out to include my thoughts, my calendar, and my choices. And even how I will enter each and every morning.
Thankfully I know this is true:
The faithful love of the Lord never ends!
His mercies never cease.
Great is his faithfulness;
his mercies begin afresh each morning. (Lamentations 3:22-23)
Because every morning is a brand new opportunity to seek out the Lord’s mercies. L.M. Montgomery said it best this way through a fiery redhead:
Tomorrow is always fresh with no mistakes in it.
Anne Shirley
So here are 5 Must-Haves for a Joyful Day, which you can take with you into each of your tomorrows.
I’ve shared numerous times about gratitude, and sometimes have included one of my favorite quotes:
Gratitude unlocks the fullness of life. It takes what we have and makes it enough and more.
Melody Beattie
In my experience, gratitude is active. It involves intentionally speaking, writing, sharing, showing, and extending thanks to people around you. Voiced into the air, a song of gratitude carries our heart and mind forward on its melody and has power to lift our head above discouragement. And being thankful on purpose is E-S-S-E-N-T-I-A-L to a joyful day, and I can basically guarantee your gratitude will help someone else have a joyful day too.
Long-term dreams can be broken into short-term pieces that move us toward what is to come. Because big dreams don’t just happen when moons line up nicely. They happen from hard work, moving along an intentional trajectory toward a desired result.
And just like our teachers taught us in school, large papers are written more productively and easily when based on an outline. Because a good outline is not haphazard – it is an intentional framework upon which an entire essay will hang. It is where the most essential work lies, because if the framework is weak or off-kilter, so too will the paper be.
There is a comedian and art critic who hinges everything on this. He says:
I like to turn things upside down, to watch pictures and situations from another perspective.
Ursus Wehrli
Have you done that today? Have you tried to consider a circumstance from another person’t point of view? Or have you examined a micro situation from a macro perspective? Zoom out. Could you take something in from a different angle? Step to the side.
For me, letting JOY loose has partly been a journey in perspective. God called me to Joy Let Loose when I was decidedly joy-less. And He has walked with me through some messy parts of finding joy again by calling me to vulnerability in community, and acknowledgement of #reallife stuff. Sometimes it feels just like this:
God gifts us with a glimpse that actual Kingdom reality doesn’t look quite like what we see in the moment. He uses people to help us ask important questions that narrow things in or turn them around or magnify what matters. It’s often all about perspective, and in the change, we find a joyful day. So be open to a shift!
Perspective is everything when you are experiencing the challenges of life.
Joni Eareckson Tada
A fresh perspective begs for flexibility. We will be far less drained and far more joyful when we can roll with things somewhat. Not that organization, planning, or strategy need to be thrown out the window.
Remember the essay outline I mentioned? Outlines and plans and strategies are important. But sometimes the clothing that ultimately dresses the outline can shift, or be accessorized differently. Sometimes throwing an orange scarf in the mix that you happened to find in the bin at Goodwill is just the thing to tie the whole designer outfit together. Get where I’m going with this analogy?
I used to teach piano lessons. Scales, chords, sight-reading, classical music, gospel songs, jazz…all the things that I think are important for budding musicians to learn. But one key component I often included that many other teachers didn’t were moments for creative music making. I wanted to inspire the songwriters within.
And the best thing I think I infused into these little artists was an appreciation for flexibility. A “mistake” in songwriting is just an opportunity to try going a different direction than you intended. It’s an invitation for beauty you didn’t anticipate.
Be flexible. Find beauty in changing direction today. A joyful day just might live there.
A joyful day absolutely MUST hold laughter. I mean, they basically have to go hand-in-hand, I think. Even the hardest days can hold joy, after all. Even grieving days can have levity, and the most stressful days can find a chuckle somewhere. It’s important for our overall wellness.
I doubt I have to champion the benefits of laughter for you. But I may have to provide a reminder for you to seek it out if you want to have a joyful day. Check out that linked article for some great ideas for being strategic about laughter, mm-k?
And I’ll just say this: laughter is generally best when experienced with others. So in my encouragement for you to laugh everyday, I’m really saying this: get around other joyful people everyday. Joy begets joy. Laughter inspires laughter. If you don’t got it…go get it!
No day is complete without a belly laugh, amirite?
Gratitude + Goals + Perspective + Flexibility + Laughter = the perfect storm for a joyful day. Let’s be strategic about letting JOY loose.
Tell us in the comments below what you plan to do to find your joyful day!
How important is it that we say ‘thank you?’ Yes, it’s one of those politeness principles we learn as children, but is it important for us to carry that into our adult lives?
One of my favorite quotes is this: “Gratitude unlocks the fullness of life. It turns what we have into enough, and more.” (Melody Beattie)
At Joy Let Loose, I am fueled by the calling to light up the world with JOY. To find joy and to walk in it myself, but to also let it loose for others to walk in too. And I find that one of the very best ways to experience and walk in JOY is to give it away. That’s what prompts me to create Joy Challenges on my Facebook page. It what encourages me to invite people into my Young Living tribe. And it’s what keeps me coming back here to write.
So how can we make a practice of being grateful and sharing our gratitude with others? How can we appreciate people and say “thank you” in ways that are significant to them, so that we are letting JOY loose in their lives?
Giving JOY away so often looks simply like gratitude. And “gratitude unlocks the fullness of life…” What a beautiful, joyful circle that creates.
I’ve compiled a list of seven ways we can appreciate people and say “thank You.’ It is by no means exhaustive. But it is intended to help us all get started. And it’s possible you haven’t thought about some of these as a form of gratitude before. I would love to hear in the comments below which of these you found helpful. How did you use these ideas to let JOY loose? Or what other creative ideas would you add?
At our church we all wear name tags. We often say that all relationships begin by learning someone’s name. Now, there are a few exceptions to that rule. Children are sometimes more than content to play for hours alongside a new pal whose name they did not think to learn. And some people build virtual relationships with pseudonyms and avatars. But for the most part, we begin relationships by exchanging names.
Have you ever noticed how meaningful it is to re-encounter someone you’ve met only once and have them remember your name? Chances are, if this is important to you, it is also important to others. It shows people that they are:
But not everyone excels at this. I don’t. Sometimes I think my memory is like a dream – it’s sort of still there, but kind of vague and just outside my grasp. So, how can you hone this skill and show people they are meaningful to you by remembering their name?
Another way to say thank you is to take an interest in them. Taking an interest is to learn someone’s name, and then to want to know more. It’s to press past the obligatory “Hello, how are you? Great!” as you breeze by with barely a glance. It’s stopping, looking in eyes, and engaging. It’s moving beyond acquaintance and creating friend.
If you’ve ever heard the phrase, ‘If you want to love me, love my kids,’ then this is a similar premise. If you want to truly show people that you appreciate them, take note of their lives. Find common interest. Ask about their family. Follow up on the things they tell you about. Stepping into someone’s world says “I value you.”
Remember the days before texts, emails and DMs when letters would arrive in your mailbox? With real stamps and return addresses and everything? And do you remember how exciting it was to tear those open?
Letter writing is kind of a lost art. But the excitement of opening a handwritten letter is not lost on us. In fact, in our insta-world, it may even be more meaningful that someone took the time to choose the card/notepaper, address the envelope, select the right postage, and get it into the mailbox. The person who did that for you thought about you that whole time. They appreciate you.
Now, go be that person.
This past month I took a leadership development challenge with my business. I thoroughly enjoyed it. One of the most valuable things I realized was how meaningful voice-to-voice contact in. Again, we operate in such a text-based and instant world, that the warmth of voice is often lost. So I started using the phone more. And I started sending voice texts instead of just texting. Every single person who received a voice text from me over the last few weeks has mentioned how meaningful it was to hear my voice.
Go the extra mile and add warmth to your connections.
Ready for another “extra mile”? One incredible way to say thank you to people and to help them to feel valuable is to expand your family borders and open your home to them. If the very thought of that makes you panic, don’t worry. Most people are more focused on the gratitude they feel to get to share life with you than they are on your clutter and dust. I promise.
We are made for relationship. We aren’t made to do life alone. But so many people are starved for relationship that they don’t know the first thing about living life in community. And yet, bringing people into community can say thank you so much more loudly than most other things. So why not take a chance, offer an invite, be okay with the state of your house, and add to its warmth and love by expanding your borders to invite them in?
It has become apparent to me over the years that listening is actually one of my skills. I know this because:
We all have an intrinsic desire to be known. And being known happens through patient exploration. There is incredible joy in knowing that if we love God, we are known by Him. (1 Cor. 8:3) And there is also incredible joy in knowing that we are known by others. When I listen to people, I ask God to increase my capacity to care about what they care about, and to help them to feel valuable. To feel known. That’s it.
Stay off your devices. Look people in the eye. Listen. Ask questions and leave space for them to answer them. This is a huge way to show your gratitude for them and say thank you.
I’m afraid this is one of those suggestions that may come across either as a no-brainer, or as an “every-Christian-says-they’ll-pray-but-do-they-ever-actually’? kind of things.
If you’ve never offered to pray for someone. Do it. And then actually do it.
If you’ve offered to, but then forgotten to, do it. Actually do it.
There is no greater partnership you can make with someone than to lock arms with them by seeking the Lord on their behalf.
Two suggestions to help with establishing this as an intentional habit:
Gratitude unlocks the fullness of life. It turns what we have into enough, and more.
Melody Beattie
People are worth the investment. Friendship is worth working on. Those manners we learned as children are still relevant for us as adults, and we have the incredible opportunity to unlock the fullness of life by being grateful. How will you say thank you today and let JOY loose?
It’s time for those pesky New Year’s Resolutions again. As a blogger, I have the (un)fortunate opportunity to be reminded of previous New Year’s resolutions I’ve put out there in black and white for all to see. All it takes is a little scrolling for me to remember that I talked about enlarging our borders in 2018 and pursuing JOY in 2017. And I feel almost a little sorry for my then-self, who clearly had no idea about the dark corners and jagged cliffs those years would hold. Crisis and fear prowled around waiting to devour innocent resolve, and I had no clue what was coming. Did that make me naive, I wonder? Should I have not bothered?
My flesh a little bit says ‘yes’, but my spirit says, ‘NO!’ (Emphatically, in her biggest girl voice.)
Indeed, I still think it is important to make New Year’s Resolutions. Why bother? And what are mine for 2019? Thank you for asking. 🙂
Well, I believe goal-setting helps us turn the page with purpose. New Year’s resolutions help us to be more strategic about how we face what is before us. A strategy, according to Merriam-Webster, “is a plan of action or policy designed to achieve a major or overall aim.” According to Forbes, it is “a framework for making decisions…” It helps us to consider the “why” of our lives as we enter the new year, so we can then chart the course of the “how.” Of course, we all know the challenge of remaining disciplined. But perhaps the gravity and importance of the resolution–its why–may help us. Anything worth becoming is worth working for.
Only those who attempt the absurd can achieve the impossible. (Albert Einstein)
Of course, reasonable resolutions may seem more possible than absurd ones. But the absurd are the places where imagination and creativity reside. Where passion and drive pulse.
Let me recount a little about my resolution to pursue JOY in 2017-18. What I thought I would find was more laughter, more light-heartedness, more jovial times. Instead, though, what I found was more steadfastness in pain, more patience in crisis, and a greater ability to remain constant in chaos. In fact, the jovial and light-hearted moments of this year were few and far between, and seemed almost to punctuate sadness. Was this the JOY I was looking for?
Well, no. And yes.
It wasn’t the JOY I was hoping for, but it was JOY that I found.
Paul reminds the Romans to “Be joyful in hope, patient in affliction, faithful in prayer.” (Romans 12:12). Interesting how closely he places joy and hope to affliction and prayer. Hmmmm. Almost as if that’s where joy tends to reside.
He had also pleaded with the Philippians: “Rejoice in the Lord always. I will say it again: ‘Rejoice!’ Let your gentleness be evident to all. The Lord is near. Do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.” (Phil. 4:4-7) Notable, again, how near joy sits to anxiousness and need. And that rejoicing is possible at all times.
Back in February of 2017 I wrote about the artificial division we Christians sometimes make between JOY and HAPPINESS. And I considered how God intended them to be intertwined, though they aren’t identical in nature. So now I sit and think about how fleeting moments of happiness have seemed this year, even though I have consistently been strengthened by the JOY of the Lord.
Was I perhaps more strategic in 2018 about pursuing JOY in my need than I was about pursuing HAPPINESS?
But may the righteous be glad and rejoice before God; may they be happy and joyful. (Psalm 68:3)
In 2019 I am going to be more strategic to choose happy. I am going to look for happiness, document happiness, celebrate happiness, and promote happiness. Through my writing, my leading, my business building, my whatever, I believe I can find the promised happiness of the Lord as I continue to choose joy.
How about you? Do you have a word for 2019? Share in the comments below how you resolve to pursue it in this coming year.