Day 1 of the Joy Journey

Today we start our journey of finding and recognizing joy! 


I will be honest, I have not always been looking for the 'joy' filled things, or in a hurry to see the true 'God Gifts' that were around me. There have been many things that I have had to experience personally to begin my own journey of seeing all that He places around me. I had many losses ... namely the sudden passing of my dad, and then loosing a baby.


It took a while for me to be ready to see joy again, but I am thankful to say that God was patient with me (as He is with us all!)

The tool that God chose to use was a wonderful book called 'One Thousand Gifts' by Ann Voskamp. I know many of you have heard of it, some might have even read it, and for others, this is your first introduction to her. She has a fabulous websitewww.aholyexperience.com where she shares daily blogs and thought ... definitely something that I recommend you check out :)

The thoughts that I am going to share through the upcoming days are from her 'parenting manifesto of joy' and then some of my own thoughts as well.

So here we go ... Day 1
Today, I will make our home a house of prayer. I will pray at set times. And I will invite our children to come move into an interior space that lives with God. 

I know that many of us have a time of day where we quietly meet with the Lord and glean from His word. However, how many of our children see us doing it! I know that I do my time when the girls are sleeping or the house is quiet and they are doing something else. They need to see us praying and lifting up our voice to the Lord; they need to see us reading His word and applying it to our lives. How else can we teach them the importance of doing these things? Let's have our homes be a place where our children know that His name is uplifted!

Let's have a goal this week to have a few set times in the day where we pause and pray, give thanks and remind ourselves of His goodness towards us. I know for me, my goal will be 9am, noon and 3pm. Let's pray with our kids, for our kids and husbands and let's be families of prayer!

Until tomorrow :)