JOY – My ‘One Little Word’ for 2010

I know, I know, I’m late with announcing it to the world – but there it is: JOY.
In the ‘scrapbooking world’ there’s a designer [Ali Edwards] who started this trend a few years ago – choosing a word to focus on throughout the year – kind of a mantra to live by and guide us through the coming days. Some believers do a similar thing by choosing a verse of scripture to meditate on throughout the year, so, thus, my verse:

^“But as for me, I will sing about your power. Each morning I will sing with JOY about your unfailing love. For you have been my refuge, a place of safety when I am in distress”. Psalm 59:16 (New Living Translation)

Last year was the first year I participated – and my word was CHOICE – a good word that helped remind me that in all things God has given us a free-will to make a choice of how we react, what we do - or don’t do, etc. But even with that there were many times I found myself with such anxiety over the ‘what ifs’ in life that I failed to see the JOY in life, So that’s my word – JOY – it’s a choice too, you see. And this year I’m making a conscious effort to see [and experience] JOY as I go through life – and I’m not just talking finding JOY in big things here, I’m talking about finding JOY the little, everyday, things. I’m talking about choosing to not go through life’s day in and out regularness without really seeing and finding the JOY that is all around us, if we only look. For example – Having JOY in loading and unloading that dishwasher for instance – so blessed am I that I even have a dish washer and a wonderful family that helps me keep those dirty dishes coming…

Here’s a little craftiness I did a few weeks ago to hang over my desk to remind me to look for JOY in life. You can see that it’s an ornament I picked up at Cracker Barrel after Christmas and ‘altered’ a bit to bring me JOY throughout the year. [craft paint + flowers and netting from my kit from The Girls’ Loft] I’m also trying to focus on JOY, as I start the year reading ‘Choosing Gratitude: Your journey to JOY’ [Nancy Leigh DeMoss] and participate in the Faith Based Pages Classes Yahoo Group [link on the left] as we study this book and interpret it on our scrapbook pages together. Come on over and join us! There’s JOY in sharing together!