Choose Joy
Our life is full of choices. Do I choose the fries or roasted vegetables? Workout for 30 minutes or scroll instagram a little longer? Go to church or sleep in? I mean, honestly, you make thousands of choices a day-some for better, some for worse.
Besides the life-giving, eternity-altering decision of accepting Jesus as your Lord and Savior, probably one of the next most important decisions you can make is choosing joy over grumpiness/heartache/self-deprication/fear. Joy is the second gift of The Spirit. It comes before peace, and patience, as well as goodness (and those are pretty helpful gifts!). When we look at our lives through a lens of joy, the sun is brighter, the little moments more enriching, the tasks less daunting, and life’s curve balls can be seen less as interruptions and more as opportunities.
My husband and I have a “joy jar” that we fill with both big and small moments throughout the year; everything from “I smiled when Chris kissed me on the forehead before he headed downstairs,” to “we just bought a house that met all but one of the items on our wishlist.” We purpose to document the moments in life that bring us joy, and in some circumstances, we need to dig deep to find that joy. On New Year’s Eve every year we read through our memories as we reminisce about all of the good that the Lord has blessed us with that year. It is one of my favorite traditions because it allows us to end the year focused and aligned with joy.
Our brains are created to LOVE pleasure and happiness. When we experience feelings of joy, it leads to growth of nerve connections, improved cognition, increased attentiveness, and more happy thoughts (Psychology Today). You see, choosing joy once leads to it being easier to choose it again (and again), and who doesn’t want to lead a happier life?
Full disclosure: sometimes life gets busy, and our moments of joy don’t always make it onto paper and into the jar, so this year we plan to be more intentional in both identifying and documenting the joy. Choosing to see the good, happy, and joyous rather than dwelling on the monotonous, mundane, or painful. This is not to say that we don’t acknowledge the pain when it comes, but when it does (and surely it will) we purpose to bring it to the Lord in prayer.
Here are some ideas to help you get started:
Buy or make a joy jar
Purpose to write down joyful moments once a week (to start…and then increase it to once a day if you’re able)
Set a reminder in your phone so that you remember
Talk about the moments with your spouse and/or family members to get everyone involved
Buy or make a sign that reminds you to choose joy
Do you have a way that you ensure that you are choosing joy and purposing to document it in your life? If so, I’d love to hear about it in the comments! If not, I encourage you to try a “joy jar” this year. I do have them for sale below or on my shop page, but you can also just make one on your own!
Cheers to choosing joy!