Deepen your joy

To share a favorite quote of mine with you:

"Men and women who turn their lives over to God will find out that He can make a lot more out of their lives than they can. He will deepen their joys, expand their vision, quicken their minds, strengthen their muscles, lift their spirits, multiply their blessings, increase their opportunities, comfort their souls, raise up friends and pour out peace. Whoever will lose his life to God will find he has eternal life."

-Ezra Taft Benson

Wishing you all of these blessings and more this Christmas and in the New Year.

Joy in Service

This Christmas season has been a busy one for me. There has been a little more added stress then usual due to some responsibilities at church. I feel like I have lost some needed time while trying to figure out my new church responsibilities, but it does not matter. I have been able to take some time to serve this month. I was able to help sew stockings for homeless children and I wrapped presents for "Toys for Tots." They were both a blast. They are new activities I want to make yearly traditions.

Christmas is a time where it is easy to get caught up in the material and forget about what it is about, but Christ is the reason for the season. Christ taught us how to serve others and so in the season especially it is important to serve others. I have loved it. It has made me really appreciate what I have and the community I live in. It has helped me relax for a bit and relieve some built up stress. It is so worth it. I highly recommend doing some service on your own and with you family around Christmas. I am totally adding them to my list of traditions. Check in our community. I am sure there is something going on. Seriously, all you have to do is look to find a great service opportunity.

You too can find joy in service. Try it!

Joy in the Journey - Every Day

Just so we can get it out of the way, yes I did - again! - immediately think of pop music references when I started thinking about JOY this week: this one and this one. I know, I'm such a dork. Really, I promise, I don't plan it this way!

Anyway.

Joy just seems like a very particular kind of happiness, don't you think? Joy is something you jump and shout for, cry tears of and get completely filled to bursting with. Everyone finds joy in different places, but wouldn't it be grand to find it everywhere? I thought of that as I folded the small mountain of laundry that somehow got lost in last week's busyness. And then I thought again, as I have many times since he said them, of the words of our prophet:

If you are still in the process of raising children, be aware that the tiny fingerprints that show up on almost every newly cleaned surface, the toys scattered about the house, the piles and piles of laundry to be tackled will disappear all too soon and that you will—to your surprise—miss them profoundly.

And then I went back and re-read all of his words that day, and remembered that it is possible to find joy everywhere, if only we will see it and be grateful. Lately, and especially in the last few weeks, it's been my prayer and my goal to sort out the important things from, well, everything else. It shouldn't have been surprising that as I've put those most important things at the top of my list, I've found more joy in every day:

This is our one and only chance at mortal life—here and now. The longer we live, the greater is our realization that it is brief. Opportunities come, and then they are gone. I believe that among the greatest lessons we are to learn in this short sojourn upon the earth are lessons that help us distinguish between what is important and what is not. I plead with you not to let those most important things pass you by as you plan for that illusive and nonexistent future when you will have time to do all that you want to do. Instead, find joy in the journey—now.

We all find joy in different places, but we all find it in the same way:

... realize what is most important, [...] express our gratitude always

and thus find joy in the journey.

Merry, merry Christmas! May you find joy in the season and then keep finding it every day.

Finding JOY

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Where do you find JOY during this Christmas season? 

I'm going to admit right now that I have had a harder time this year finding that special feeling because of a very busy schedule.  My days are packed with meetings and violin lessons to teach plus a home to take care of and all that comes with trying to create a meaningful and special Christmas.  I find myself so caught up in what has to be done that I forget to stop and feel why it should be done and my reason for doing it.  Then there is trying to decide if it even needs to be on my list.  Even though the busyness is always going to be there I have found that in order to find JOY in what I am doing I need to make sure the task is meaningful and from my heart. 

I found JOY this year:

• the moment we began to play the Hallelujah chorus for a large sing-a-long audience and could hear the JOY coming from every voice.
• after creating my list of things to make for gifts and imagining their reaction.
• dropping off cookies to neighbors and friends.
• seeing the Young Women I love open up their Christmas gifts and love what had been made for them.
• spending an entire weekend with my family just playing in the water.
• dancing in the kitchen with my kiddos to their favorite Christmas tunes.
• making Santa cookies and caramels with my husband.
• decorating our tree and seeing it sparkle.
• finding Payton stuffing our stockings with love notes and secret messages.
• standing next to my husband and my sister while we caroled to our neighbors.
• sewing up over 300 stockings  for those in need in a small room filled with women who love to serve.
• any time I sit in front of my fireplace and stop to think about what's really important.
• playing my violin in church.
• listening to our prophet speak.
• cooking for people I love.
• having guests stay in our home and seeing them be amazing with our kids.
• creating a Christmas card with my dad and seeing him work his magic.
• seeing a family who is hurting be uplifted by voices who love and pray for them.
• "White Christmas"
• finishing something for a new special member of the family.
• making plans to see family.
• shopping for our kids
• seeing magic happen every time a Ho Ho Ho fills the air.
• smelling a Christmas candle and wearing cozy socks while working on a gift.
• knowing what I believe and why we go through this craziness to make things so special.
• being still and seeing JOY just appear from everywhere.

What brings you JOY this time of year?