You know that saying: when life gives you lemons, make lemonade?

 

I’ve made that one of my new mantras!

 

Inspiring me to do this is the book entitled Laugh It Up by Candace Payne. In her book, Candace talks of the importance of having defiant joy despite life circumstances. She shares some pretty heavy personal struggles and how she went about choosing joy in each situation. I love her focus upon “simple joys.” She defines simple joys as “the simplest things that bring warmth to your heart.” (Here’s a link to Laugh It Up in case you want to check it out!)

 

This week I had to do a really hard thing.

 

This “thing,” compounded by other challenges over the past few months, have required my husband Billy and I to wage some serious battles in our minds: primarily, what is our focus going to be- on what is negative or what is positive?

 

The “thing” required  Billy and I to drive out of town-just the two of us. We determined early on to make the best of a demanding situation.

 

Once the “thing” was over, the day was filled with memories of simple joys that I will not soon forget….

 

Simple Joy #1:  Billy hugging me and telling me that he was proud of me. (He actually told me a few times through the day!)

 

Simple Joy #2: Invading Marshall’s and buying clothes for ourselves! (We opted not to get each other Christmas presents with the intention of shopping clothing sales after the holidays! We both need new clothes due to weight loss- yahoo! We are still celebrating lol!)

 

Simple Joy #3: Oh, the fun of excessive shopping and dining options! (We aren’t used to this in our small town!) We landed at the Hawaiian BBQ restaurant, and ordered “plate lunches”, causing us to reminisce about our trip to Hawaii nearly 9 years ago!

 

Simple Joy #4: Our huddling together, attempting to warm up, as we perused more stores- Home Goods, Nordstroms’ Rack, and the Clarks Outlet- oh my! Check out our discovery at Home Goods…

He would have climbed upon it if he hadn’t been worried about breaking it and having to buy it lol.

 

Simple Joy #5: Our drive back home, holding hands while listening to 80’s hits like “We Belong” and “Love Shack” lol.

“We Belong”

 

“Love Shack”

 

I CHOOSE to commemorate those “simple joys” of that day. They will not be overshadowed by the hard thing that I had to do.

 

I challenge you to do the same thing!

 

Simple Joys Challenge: Do you have a hard situation that you have to deal with? Focus on the simple joys instead! Share with us if you did the challenge! No need to tell us your hard thing. Just share if you did the challenge!

 

Once we are intentional about focusing on simple joys, we establish a life pattern of CHOOSING JOY.

 

I acknowledge that this is not always an easy task, but it’s a mindset worth adopting!

 

Don’t you think?