Skip to main content

Points of Joy

My mom recommended that I read One Thousand Gifts by Ann Voskamp. My mom is an avid reader and her reading recommendations are always excellent. So, I borrowed her copy and started reading…

Wow.

Ann Voskamp is truly an artist and her framework for finding joy in every moment of our lives stirs my heart. She paints these beautiful word pictures of life on their farm and raising her children. Ann also writes about feeling disappointment, suffering, anger and sadness. These are feelings that are familiar to me and she describes them in a way that fits with my experience of them. But, right when she has me hooked by those shared feelings, she starts writing about emptying ourselves so that God can fill us and how joy is always available to us through Jesus if we have eyes to see it in our circumstances. Ann writes about practicing thanksgiving by looking for points of joy in everyday life and how our hearts naturally shift as we teach our eyes to see differently and our hearts to receive everything that God has to give.

Ann Voskamp also has a blog, www.aholyexperience.com, and it's fantastic. I try to make time to read it at least once a week because it is full of beautiful images from her farm and words that move me into action. I want to be overflowing with thankfulness and it makes sense that this is a skill that I need to practice. I understand that joyfulness is a state of being, rather than a feeling, and that I have to choose to live in that place by actively looking for the joy that God has put all around me. I have to surrender my hurt and uncomfortable feelings to Him and empty my hands of them so that He can fill them up with all of Him.

I am practicing gratefulness and I have already started to feel my heart shifting and softening. I have noticed things like purple wild flowers growing in green grass as I run through the forest preserve. I have praised God for my 97 Saturn station wagon that keeps running in defiance of people's low expectations for its life expectancy. I have enjoyed simple things like cooking a meal and sipping a cup of hot coffee. I rejoice that I had 20 appointments this week and no one canceled. I am proud to stand and celebrate two graduations and one wedding in my family this month. I relish the sun warming my face and experience it like God's affection for me.

Truly, God is good to me all the time. Truly, He always loves me. How do I let difficult circumstances convince me that this is not true? Why am I so easily persuaded that He has forgotten me and the desires of my heart that remain unfulfilled? It is clear that I am not seeing Him in the moments and seasons where I believe these lies about God. Lord, please give me eyes to see you rightly. Help me to really see you and not my circumstances. Help me to fix my eyes on your gaze and not my unanswered prayers. Train my eyes to look for points of joy all around me. Train me to recognize you at work all around me, in every situation. Teach me to believe that connecting with you is the richest blessing that I can ever receive and that You offer it to me every second of every minute of every day of my life.

I have been greatly encouraged by Ann Voskamp, her book and her blog. I share this information with you in the hopes that it may encourage you too. Maybe you will want to start searching for points of joy too.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Transition, transition, transition

Wow, it's already the middle of September! This past month has flown by for me.









I just finished my fifth week of the new school year.

I am loving The Quiet Collection by Emily P Freeman to help me have a sane September. (This blog post appearing is a partial fruit from one of those devotions which encouraged me to stop overthinking things and create.)

I'm remembering how vital my crock pot is if we want to have a hot dinner on a work day.

I have completed 8 of my 21 days of working out goal for this month!

I have done some hard stops for prayer, gazing on beauty, snuggling one of my loves and remembering how to breathe deeply.

One of the discoveries in this season of transition is that I have believed that busy=bad. My sweet, slow-paced summer schedule has been swapped out for one that is much more highly charged with many responsibilities and activities that are looking for a place within my week. I have found myself feeling shame over how full my schedule is and afraid that …
Post a Comment
Read more

A Summer to Thrive

I am finishing my last week of my summer work hours. I have been reflecting on my summer and how I spent it.

In May, I intentionally wrote a list of hopes, dreams and goals for my summer season. I used my daring greatly manifesto from Vulnerability, Courage, Shame, and Empathy: The Living Brave Continuing Education Course. I completed Jess Connolly's Summer to Thrive: A Guide to Chilling Out and Enjoying Summer. I also spent time in prayer and asked God to give me words and ideas that would define the season.

This week, I am taking time to review these things. I am also rereading what I journaled about my actual summer. I feel encouraged by what a great summer it has been and how many of my hopes I was able to engage!





I pursued wholeheartedness in a lot of ways. I read books, I cooked and baked, I listened to music and I spent a lot of sweet quality time with people I cherish. I enjoyed time in prayer and worship each week and adopted a much slower pace of life. I asked questions …
Post a Comment
Read more

My Arbonne Story - A journey of discovery

You guys, drum roll, please... I have become an Independent Consultant with Arbonne!

This is a big change for me and I am SO, so excited for this opportunity. But, no one seems to be as surprised as I am by this development. Most of the people that I have told have said something like, "That makes sense." Or, "I can see you doing that."This has gotten me reflecting on what has been emerging in me that is facilitating this transition. And, how does what seems like such a discovery to me seem so logical to everyone else?!

I have been an Arbonne groupie for several years now. I absolutely love their product! Every time they come out with something new and I get to try it, I end up wanting it. I have hosted several parties and I have thoroughly enjoyed introducing other people to all of the amazing products that I have been enjoying, but I never considered becoming a consultant.
Recently, something shifted for me. I was at a party and I felt really stirred when Nikki …
Post a Comment
Read more