Be Joy

Today, in my morning time with Jesus I received what felt like the most peculiar direction.

BE JOY.


Huh, God? How do I do that? How do  I be joy?


There is no DO....there is BE. BE joy to the world today, Cari.


Ok, ok...I know what you're thinking....yes, in my head, God sounds like Yoda.  I think he's ok with that. I also think Yoda is the perfect metaphor for my big-power-speaks-softly-but-carries-a-big-stick kind of God, but that is a whole other blog post.

In this 100 joys series, we are all discussing things that bring us joy, looking for joy in our everyday lives, but what about BEING joy.  What does that look like?

What is joy exactly? Webster's dictionary defines it as a state of happiness or felicity or a source or cause of delight.  Which honestly didn't answer any questions for me.  So I asked God.  What is joy....and a list of words came slamming into me...I can't fully recall them all, but here's a start:

Gratitude

Love

Compassion

Worry-free

Light

Unity

Harmony

Peace

Stillness

Presence

The list continued to run through my mind for over a minute.  A barrage of words that summed up the meaning of joy. So today my challenge is to LIVE these words.  To become the physical embodiment of these words in the world.  My challenge is not to look for joy, or recognize joy or even to DO joy.  Today my challenge is to BE JOY.  Will you join me?

In the spirit of sharing Christmas joy, I would love for you to share a comment with me.  One lucky commenter will receive a copy of my book, Living Life with Strings Attached as a gift.  Comment by midnight on December 24 to win.  

What words mean joy to you?

Joy on the Team

 

Great Joy comes with great relationships! Thank you Jesus for creating us in your image...as relational beings.  Being with friends and family...working together as a team, these are things that bring me joy...and lately, I've had lots of opportunities for that.

My sisters in Christ bring me great joy. They are great allies on this battlefield we call life. These are some of the photos from our November Princess Retreat. This retreat is always so near my heart because, while I lead it, these women KNOW me. They are my sisters, they hold me accountable and love me...and I love them...They are my team.

IBC Princesses are some of the finest women in the world! I am blessed and honored to be a part of them!

Speaking God's love, sharing his message brings me great joy.  It's in these moments, I glimpse what I was created for.

Sharing God's love through prayer is a sweet joy.










But the purest joy of all is spending time with these crazies! What precious rays of sunshine my family are!

Guest Post- Going Fast

My fellow blogging sister, Sarah Markley at The Best Days of My Life is starting a series called 100 Joys.  I love this series...her challenge: in the month of December, choose Joy, and then write about it.  Every Monday we'll link up and share with one another.  I love the idea, and already find myself loving the posts...but this one in particular spoke to me today.  There is something joyful about the wind in your hair, zooming through life fast...and yet sometimes fast can be scary, or overwhelming or just plain too much.  God is calling me to slow down and quiet...to solitude, but I like fast! This post really spoke to me, I hope that it will to you as well.  I will be linking up with posts on Joy...won't you join us?

I’m teaching myself to run again. After about 1 and a half years of struggling to find motivation to get up and run {11}

to

catch

the

sunrise,

I’m doing it again. I’m lacing up shoes that need to see miles and hiding cold hands inside the sleeves of a sweatshirt. And running. I’m not racing for speed or checking off boxes on a to-do list. But I’m running because that’s me. And I’ve lost some of me over the past few years.

Here I am again. In my athletic shoes. Waiting to go fast.

One or two days a week I watch my oldest daughter ride a horse. She’s strong and sure and she’s already fast. Already, at roller-coaster-loving eight-years-old, she’s fast. It’s the speed, I think, that she likes. {12}

And she pauses in the corner of the arena, for a minute, between speed bursts and pats his neck.

You’re doing great, she whispers to him. And I think what she means is Thank you for being you. It satisfies me that she’s doing something she loves. And she’s doing it well. Sometimes I don’t take the time to “be proud” of her. But this afternoon I do. I watch. I listen. And I love her by thinking about the WHO of her. {13}

I called Chad on the phone in the middle of the day.

“The stress is literally strangling me, ” I said to him.

“What can I do to help?” is usually not what he asks but this time it was different.

I just let out a long sigh. There was no joy in this kind of fast. If I can only get the rhythm down between moving too fast or not fast enough then things might. just. work. I’m moving too fast, I felt. The list is getting longer and not shorter, I now have to swipe the page down to see all of it.

So I take a couple or three hours in the morning while the girls are at school, with my laptop and Jack Johnson in my ears and sitting with a cup. {14}

Quiet.

Still.

I’m allowing the slowness of life to refill me and not the stress to fix its hands around my neck. Finding the slow in a busy month {busier than I would have ever chosen} is helping my attitude. It’s beginning to help me see what is important. These joys, so far, are changing me. {15}

Have you been changed by JOY?

This a post in the 100 Joys project we are doing this month. Get ready to link up your posts on Monday and get the badge in my sidebar. Look for joy. Find it beneath your fingers.