Simply Joy

It was at my eye level on the Christmas tree when I walked into the house. 

I hadn't noticed it before. Where did it come from? How did it get there?

I walked past it again, staring at it as I went.

3 sparkly green letters: 

J.  O.  Y.  

(I found out later that Ben had received the ornament as a gift from the church kids choir.)

Joy. I can't remember when I decide it would be the topic for the year. 

We have friends who homeschool their children. They focus on an attribute of God each year. This year it was faith or the faithfulness of God. The idea of having a year studying and learning about one word was intriguing to me. At some point after mulling over the idea for myself. I decided on the word joy.   Joy has been missing in my life.  Joy is something I need. After such a hard, life-changing year our family needs joy. 

Joy was the theme of our Christmas card, it is strung across the cross hanging our kitchen, it is the block letters sitting on the mantel next to my world lamp, and now it is gracing our Christmas tree. It just happened. I see it everywhere. I can't escape it. 

At some point, on Pinterest of course, I discovered a pin that led to Ann Voskamp's site and her Joy Dare. I bought her book, twice actually. One was given to a friend to read with me. I decided that I could create a blog strictly for this Joy Dare. It would keep me accountable and plus, I had bought a new Canon camera a few months back that I would get to use, a lot. 

I don't even know if I can make it one year on a single topic. Words that come to mind when considering this are:

Challenging. 

Hard.

A choice. 

Daily. 

So you are welcome to join me on finding joy in 2013.