Life is hard. It’s scary, overwhelming, and let’s be real, a lot of people just aren’t that nice.

We’ve stress in our home lives. Stress in our work lives. Stress in our school lives. How are we supposed to be joyful in the quagmire?

A lot of us turn online, only to be disappointed by the tragedy in the news or the scandals of celebrities. Sometimes, we can be so afraid of disappointment and failure we’ll stifle any joy we do have, just to protect our hearts.

If that wasn’t enough, if we look in the opposite direction at the other end of the spectrum, we’ve got a ‘toxic positivity’ trend. If you do acknowledge the reality that life isn’t all that fun, you get hit with invalidation! Indignation! Worst of all, comparison. “But you have [blank]! Why can’t you be happy?”

Don’t get me wrong. It’s so important to be thankful. But life isn’t just about stifling one side, good or bad, positive or negative. We have to acknowledge the reality of the matters at hand.

There is a time for both.

That being said, I highly doubt you need to balance the joy in your life with more negativity right now.

Growing up in the ‘age of technology’ and through my battle with things off the internet, like chronic pain, bullying, and depression, I’ve seen first hand what happens when you take the backseat when defending your joy.

The joy we have, we must choose. We must hold onto it, and sometimes we have to put in effort to seek it out.
If there is one thing we can take away from the negativity around us, it’s this: Negativity is easy. Joy is hard.

Defend your joy.

But how? How can we possibly even begin this journey to defend our joy?

Well for starters, we can begin to use words like quagmire more often.

Jokes aside, I want to help create a place where you can easily seek that joy out. A place where you don’t have to sort through the negative just to find a scrap of something good.

I’m by no means a mental-health profession. I’m not a therapist or a counselor. I can’t fix depression or cure anxiety, (and if you find yourself struggling, please know that there’s absolutely no shame in getting help) but I can guide your towards the little drops of sunshine amidst this dark sea we call life. A place to seek out the beauty in the wild flowers and find a little bit more of God’s amazing love for you.

On this blog you’ll find many joy-inspired things. We’ll dive into musing about scripture. We’ll take a look at fun crafts that I’ve found help keep our joy up. I’ll share music, and most importantly, joy-inspiring stories to help us get through the week.

Are you ready to start taking active steps in this battle?