After finding something each day to be thankful for, there are a few more things I find that help me find joy in my life. The next one I want to talk about is ‘things that used to bring me joy.’
When we go through trials, we often find ourselves too busy or too frustrated to do the things that bring us joy. Sometimes it’s too expensive to be involved in those things. Other times, it’s simply been so long that we just plum forgot about the things that we used to love to do. After a while, we may not even realize that we are no longer doing the things that bring us any joy.
I’ll bet, after you just read that paragraph, you have identified a few things you used to love to do. What were they? Is it possible to do one of them now? Some of the things we used to love to do are not a possibility now with the fatigue or pain of chronic illness. Other things might be though. Pick one to do this month.
If there isn’t at least one thing you used to do that would work for you today, think back to things you might have considered but didn’t have the time. Or think about things you could do that might bring you some joy.
Here are some other ideas you can use to surround yourself with things that bring you joy:
- Old Tv shows you used to love
- Funny memes with silly jokes
- Buy things in your favorite color (hey, it works for me!)
- Do things that remind you of better times
- Take out your children’s old things
- I invite you to think up your own if these don’t work for you…
So your challenge going forward is not only to look around to see the joy that God has put in each day to bring you joy, but to search for things to do that will bring joy into your life each day.
Your next challenge is to come back next week for another tip on The Thankfulness Habit.