SUMMER OF JOY Turning Up the Things That Give Life

☀️ Summer of Joy

This summer, I'm thinking a lot about joy.

A few years ago, I heard Tonya Leigh talk about the idea of a Joy Diet, and I thought it was brilliant.

Most diets focus on food.

The Joy Diet asks a different question:

What are we consuming every day?

Not just physically, but mentally, emotionally, and spiritually.

What are we feeding our minds?

What are we feeding our hearts?

What are we feeding our lives?

The Joy Knob

My friend Audrey has a wonderful way of looking at life.

She describes it as though we're sitting in front of a giant soundboard filled with knobs.

One knob says:

✨ Joy

✨ Gratitude

✨ Beauty

✨ Friendship

✨ Adventure

✨ Faith

✨ Laughter

✨ Creativity

✨ Love

And then there are the other knobs:

• Worry

• Offense

• Comparison

• Complaining

• Fear

• Rumination

Every day, whether we realize it or not, we're turning those knobs.

We may not control every circumstance that comes our way, but we do have influence over what we're amplifying.

Turning Up the Good

This summer, I want to be intentional about turning up the joy knob.

Turning up gratitude.

Turning up beauty.

Turning up laughter.

Turning up friendship.

Turning up adventure.

Turning up all the things that make life feel rich, meaningful, and alive.

At the same time, I want to turn down the things that quietly steal joy.

The endless replaying of old conversations.

The offenses that should have been released long ago.

The comparison.

The worry.

The habit of dwelling on things that bring no life whatsoever.

Why Joy Matters

The older I get, the more convinced I become that joy matters.

Not because life is easy.

Not because everything always goes according to plan.

But because joy is part of the life God has invited us into.

There is beauty to notice.

There is goodness to enjoy.

There are gifts hidden in ordinary days.

My Summer Joy Diet

Over the next few months, I'll be sharing my own Joy Diet with you.

☀️ Great movies that make us laugh.

☀️ Classic comedies and favorite films that reconnect us with childhood joy.

☀️ Beautiful summer recipes.

☀️ Books I'm loving.

☀️ Ideas for friendship, marriage, hospitality, and gratitude.

☀️ Little ways to make ordinary days feel extraordinary.

Most of all, we'll explore what it looks like to stop feeding what steals our joy and start feeding what gives us life.

Because life is too precious to spend all summer replaying old hurts, worrying about tomorrow, or comparing our lives to someone else's.

Here's to a Summer of Joy

Let's notice more beauty.

Let's laugh more often.

Let's be grateful for what we have.

Let's enjoy the lives we've been given.

And let's turn the joy knob all the wa