The Joyful Life Magazine
The Joyful Life Magazine
A quarterly lifestyle print publication for Christian women seeking the JOY found by inviting JESUS into our everyday lives.
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  • We were just another two harassed moms at the grocery store. Yet, on this day, as we simultaneously navigated baby and toddler meltdowns in the middle of the checkout lane, a connection was forged. Our encounter started out unremarkably with friendly, empathetic smiles and exasperated laughter. Yet it ended quite unexpectedly with words of affirmation and kindness. As I drove home, her words were still ringing in my ears. “You’re doing an amazing job mama. Even when you don’t feel like you are, you’re doing great.”⠀ ⠀ How differently it could have turned out. I have walked away from interactions in that same grocery store with a very different range of emotions. Embarrassment, loneliness, hurt, and shame, to name a few. Yet on this day, I was left feeling encouraged and uplifted. Valued and loved. As though Jesus, himself was speaking to my weary soul. What a powerful lesson to experience first hand, the impact we can have on those around us in the daily moments of our lives.⠀ ⠀ For we are to God the pleasing aroma of Christ among those who are being saved and those who are perishing. ~2 Corinthians 2:15⠀ ⠀ Like a sweet perfume we, as followers and ambassadors of Christ, have the opportunity to spread His aroma everywhere we go. To infuse His presence into every facet of our daily lives. To be walking reflections of His compassion, His grace, His love. Every single day in small, quiet ways we are given opportunities to bring meaning to the mundane. To make a connection and make someone’s day. Yet so many of us are so enveloped in the demands of our daily schedule that we miss the point. Maybe we don’t even see the people God has placed in our midst. People who desperately need to glimpse the heart of the Father, to bask in the aroma of Christ. ⠀ ⠀ How we treat others in the mindless everyday interactions of our lives, matters. So let’s bring Jesus into the details of the day-to-day and make every moment meaningful.⠀ ⠀ Vicki Bentley, @purposeful_joy⠀ ⠀ 📷: Rhadonda Sedgwick, @rhadonda⠀ ⠀ ___⠀ ⠀ 🌿Have you ordered your copy of our premier issue, ABIDE, yet? Shipping November 2018 | Find the LINK IN OUR BIO!⠀ ___
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  • Do you have a dedicated office/workspace in your home? So many of us work from home these days—whether it's running a full-time business, exploring a creative pursuit, writing, or even carving out peaceful space to do the behind the scenes work of running a household.⠀ ⠀ It can be a challenge to find a workspace in our home that is both inspiring and functional.⠀ ⠀ In today's blog post, Jennifer Van Winkle @sweetsound37 shares practical tips and a unique and refreshing perspective on creating a workspace that 'works' within your home. ⠀ ⠀ READ TODAY'S POST by clicking through to the link in our bio.⠀ ___⠀ ⠀ Tag #joyfullifecommunity to be featured in our feed. ❤
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  • Bathroom stalls are a great place to hide. And guess where I’ve most frequently sought emotional refuge inside a cold, metal stall? ⠀ ⠀ Church. ⠀ ⠀ One difficult Sunday, I hid away in the mauve colored stall after greeting all morning with a friendly, “Welcome to church! We’re glad you’re here!” I stood at my volunteer position when suddenly I just couldn’t do it anymore. Sobs welled up inside me and off to the bathroom I ran. ⠀ ⠀ At the time, I was an expert at hiding my real self behind a beautiful mask. Especially at my church.⠀ ⠀ Moving a lot in my early years, I started new schools in new towns several times. To deal with the pressure and internal anxiety, I stuffed my emotions. Stuffed my desires. Stuffed my shame. All the while donning a lovely smile and pretending everything was ok. Nobody ever asked me to do that. It was my way to avoid staring eyes. If I pretended to be ok, maybe I really would be. So that’s where I found myself that Sunday morning, exhausted from wearing a fake smile, hiding in a bathroom stall so nobody could see my tears. ⠀ ⠀ I love church. I even work at one now. But as I grew older and heavier weights of expectation piled on me, church became the place that I wore my thickest mask. ⠀ ⠀ I’m guessing I’m not alone.⠀ ⠀ Have you found yourself there? Literally or figuratively locked away, so no one can see your pain? It’s lonely. And it actually takes more effort to hide the pain than it does to let it go.⠀ ⠀ 1 Peter 5:7 says “Cast all your anxiety on Him because He cares for you.”⠀ ⠀ Because Jesus loves and cares for us, we truly have nothing to fear. Not sadness, anger, grief, anxiety or fear. Even at church!⠀ ⠀ I wish I could tell you that I never hide in the bathroom anymore. My first instinct is still to run. But more and more I trust Jesus with my pain. I let the tears flow freely even when people are around. And in doing so, He not only reminds me that He cares, but that many others do, too.⠀ ⠀ Laura Fleetwood, @seekingthestill⠀ ___⠀ ⠀ Would you like to be a part of the Joyful Life Community Group on FB? Click through to the link in our bio to JOIN US! 💛
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  • I spent the day yesterday approving the print proofs for our premier issue—and I experienced such a range of emotions that I want to share a bit of my heart with you today. ⠀ ⠀ GRATITUDE—for literally hundreds of people. My family. My friends—old and brand new. My employees. Our contributors—authors, photographers, stylists, artists, food artisans. Our devotion writers. Our sponsors. Our Kickstarter backers. And you—our community of women longing for a closer walk with Jesus and for your everyday lives to be a reflection of the joy found in Christ. ❤️⠀ ⠀ HUMILITY—that God would use our team to create something that we are so confident will influence lives and turn women’s hearts and homes toward Jesus. As I read back through the words that our contributors have poured out on your behalf, I’m in awe of the way they’ve shared their hearts and used their gifts to encourage you. There are beautiful words found on these pages and I feel so honored to be able to share them with you in just three weeks!⠀ ⠀ VULNERABILITY—My heart is so personally intertwined with this magazine. This is a dream come true—and it’s in the midst of being fulfilled. But it was never a dream for me alone. It’s always been a dream for you—for your heart, your encouragement, and your benefit. The sacrifices my family has made are of a magnitude I never imagined when I first set out to start The Joyful Life. But God has been ever so faithful. Where we have made monumental financial sacrifices—He has poured out a richness in relationships that I never expected which far surpass the value of any financial loss. Where we have sacrificed time—He has brought a sweetness and a significant new appreciation for the ordinary moments together as a family.⠀ ⠀ My deepest desire for The Joyful Life is that it will greatly impact your heart and home and that you will be inspired to invite Jesus into every ordinary corner of your life.⠀ ⠀ And a special thank you to our photography team—because Ladies, it is a visually STUNNING issue! 😍⠀ ⠀ The ABIDE Issue is available to order through the link in our profile. Shipping the first week of November. ⠀ ⠀ Your support means so much to us!
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  • “There is a terrible cost to our busyness: it erodes memory.” - Mark Buchanan, The Rest of God.⠀ ⠀ We can be so busy building a life that we don’t take time to reflect on significant moments. Without reflection, memories don’t get the chance to marinate and they lose the savor they deserve.⠀ ⠀ We attempt to fill this gap by documenting every moment, thereby cheapening those that deserve reflection and lifting the lesser to heights they were never destined for.⠀ ⠀ Everyday and ordinary are to be treasured as life-filled moments from God, but we run the risk of fragementing and weakening those truly spectacular times—the life markers—by elevating every moment as something worthy of glorification.⠀ ⠀ Like Mr. Incredible says about his wife’s attempt to downplay their child's superpower so the other children won’t feel bad, “If everyone is special, then no one is special.”⠀ ⠀ How do we capture those times worthy of glorification and inward reflection?⠀ ⠀ By building margin into our lives.⠀ ⠀ Margin gives us room to reflect, look inward, and ruminate on our memories and lay markers on the remembrances of our lives.⠀ ⠀ Reflection is like a cup of tea after a good meal… kick up your feet, loosen your belt, with nothing on your plate. It’s the opposite of rushing and filling our minds from margin to margin, leaving no free space to look back and reflect.⠀ ⠀ Rushing causes the past to recede quickly—moments shelved and stuffed away in drawers without being sorted, organized, and recorded.⠀ ⠀ How can you practice reflection each day?⠀ ⠀ A time of silence allowing the memories of the day to wash over you?⠀ ⠀ A journal for detailing and mining the busyness for gems of remembrance?⠀ ⠀ A soak in the tub and gratitude prayers?⠀ ⠀ Reflect—to think, ponder, or meditate.⠀ ⠀ Mary Gallagher, @gallagherfarmandfaith⠀ ___⠀ ⠀ DO YOU MAKE TIME TO INTENTIONALLY REFLECT ON YOUR DAY? Share in the comments below if you have made a practice of this—we would love to hear how reflection is incorporated into your life. ⠀ ___⠀ ⠀ 📷 | Rhadonda Sedgwick, @rhadonda⠀ ___⠀ ⠀ 🌿Have you pre-ordered your copy of our premier issue, ABIDE, yet? Shipping November 2018 | Find the Link in our Bio.
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  • Before digital photography existed, I blew through rolls upon rolls of film with my trusty point-and-shoot. I was always the one with the camera—in my backpack at high school, at camp, at college—ordering extra prints from the photo lab at the drug store so I could share copies with friends. I taped photos all over my walls, on the dashboard of my car, on my bathroom mirror. Photos were memories, and I didn’t want to forget a single thing.⠀ ⠀ When my oldest was a newborn, my husband and I invested in a simple DSLR, and once I learned how to use it, I was hooked. Now, photographing pretty much anything fills my joy tank. There’s no such thing as too many photos. ⠀ ⠀ @annvoskamp writes about photography in her book One Thousand Gifts: “The lens is my ink, for cameras have sensor eyes, and pixels record… another way to chronicle, to force the lids open; another way to receive the moment with thanks reverential.”⠀ ⠀ When I snap a picture, it feels sacred. Camera in hand, I can freeze a moment in time: ⠀ ⠀ - the golden afternoon sun streaming through the porch windows for one brilliant hour⠀ - the look in my preschooler’s eyes when she’s completely delighted by something⠀ - the way my firstborn’s curls fall into her face when she’s bent over a project, brows furrowed in concentration⠀ - the golden yellow hibiscus blooming in the front yard, its long stem bending in the breeze⠀ - the kitten, curled up into a ball of fur on the bed, fast asleep⠀ ⠀ These ordinary moments are beautiful gifts from a loving God, captured and preserved, and I’m filled with gratitude. Eye to my viewfinder, I’m led to worship.⠀ ⠀ Rebekah Crosby, @writetheroughdraft⠀ ⠀ ___⠀ ⠀ 🌿Have you pre-ordered your copy of our premier issue, ABIDE, yet? Shipping November 2018 | Find the LINK IN OUR BIO!⠀ ___
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The Joyful Life Magazine
  • Home
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