31 Days of Journaling Prompts: Joy

Day 26: Joy

If you’re familiar with (in)courage, then you’ve probably heard Sara’s Story. If not, then I encourage you to find 30 minutes, grab a box of tissues and watch this video. It’s incredibly inspiring and a reminder how fragile life truly can be. Sara’s motto for her life was “Choose Joy.” She was terminally ill but refused to let it bring her down and focused on the relationships she had with her online community even to her last days on Earth.

Sara said this in her blog about Joy: But here’s a question: have you stopped long enough to figure out what brings you joy, define what that joy feels like to you and realize that, like everything in life, it can be a choice?

We have to choose joy in this life because of what is going on in our life and not despite it. We can’t let those negative things get the best of us, so we choose the alternative and know that God has given us this life for a reason. If life was always good, then we wouldn’t know what to appreciate.

Joy is not those transitory moments when our favorite team is winning, we get a promotion at work or we find some fabulous shoes on sale. Joy is what continues in our lives that show us just how beautiful life is. It’s taking our focus of those trying times and focusing instead on the positive in our life. We can choose to feel oppressed but we can also choose joy.

There was a time in my life when I was in an unsatisfying relationship, a stressful job, and it seemed like my car was in the shop more than it was out of the shop. My finances and health were in the pits, and I was showing deep signs of depression. I wish I could say that I chose joy more often during that time in my life, but I do know for a fact that I did not let all of those bad things in my life get me down. I sought help in a variety of ways and slowly started to pull myself out of that hole and begin to see the joy that I had in my life. And you know what? Life got much better! I am in a very satisfying relationship, working a job I love, and my car is in decent shape. My health and finances still struggle sometimes, but they’re in much better shape.

How do you define joy? What ways do you choose joy?

“Your success and happiness lies in you. Resolve to keep happy, and your joy and you shall form an invincible host against difficulties.” – Helen Keller

“Count it all joy, my brothers, when you meet trials of various kinds.” – James 1:2