Be Joyful

By Amy Miller

Since this is our 3rd attempt at Christmas cards, I kinda feel like I got it right. Maybe! I didn’t feel like I could put together a newsletter super quickly even though I already had our template from last year. Something inside me suggested making it somewhat more simple this year. But I like to give more than just the picture of us with a small Christmas phrase with our names on it. So this is the message I felt inspired to share, and Trevor approved!

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“The Joy we feel has little to do with the circumstances of our lives and everything to do with the focus of our lives.” - Russell M. Nelson

There’s an immense pressure that comes with trying to be happy. I don’t know anyone who can be happy all day every day! And when we have a few bad days we feel like we’ve failed somehow and will never find happiness. I think what we need to look for is the moments in our day where we felt joy! 

This year we have been figuring out what brings us joy and trying to prioritize that. We hope to go into the new year having an even better perspective, and stronger priorities so that 2017 can be joyful!

Wishing you joy in the little things every day, in this holiday season, and in the new year!

Love, Amy + Trevor

Joy vs. Happiness

I used to think “joy” was kind of a redundant word. It was probably because “happy” was used more often and I just felt like they meant the same thing. This year I was proved wrong, that joy is not the same thing as happiness.

In September we went through some hard bouts of depression where each day just didn’t seem like happiness was attainable. In my attempts to be optimistic, I suggested we look at the positive in each day; to focus on something that we did enjoy, even if it was only the 5 second LOL from watching our fav comedy show. For those of you who battle depression, you understand this is a hard task to do, but it’s definitely more attainable than the idea of feeling happy. Because like I said above, happiness comes with a pressure of this absolute idea that if the majority of our day was down or difficult, we won’t/can’t/aren’t happy at all. That kind of pressure could make anyone depressed! That’s why I’m wanting to take off the pressure this new year by finding my joys in each day.

My main joy: my spouse

I used to think “joy” was kind of a redundant word. It was probably because “happy” was used more often and I just felt like they meant the same thing. This year I was proved wrong, that joy is not the same thing as happiness. In September we went through some hard bouts of depression where each day just didn’t seem like happiness was attainable. In my attempts to be optimistic, I suggested we look at the positive in each day; to focus on something that we did enjoy, even if it was only the 5 second LOL from watching our fav comedy show. In September we went through some hard bouts of depression where each day just didn’t seem like happiness was attainable. In my attempts to be optimistic, I suggested we look at the positive in each day; to focus on something that we did enjoy, even if it was only the 5 second LOL from watching our fav comedy show. For those of you with depression, you understand this is a hard task to do, but it’s definitely more attainable than the idea of feeling happy. Because like I said above, happiness does come with a pressure that if the majority of our day was down or difficult, that we aren’t happy at all. That kind of pressure could make anyone depressed! That’s why I’m wanting to take off the pressure this new year by finding my joys in each day. Part of me wants to start something where each week I will share what joys I found. I think an exercise like this can help bring more feelings of gratitude and positivity each day. :)

A Joyful Marriage

I’ve decided I’m going to say that my spouse gives me joy instead of happiness. Because my spouse doesn’t make me happy every single second of the day haha. YEP I JUST SAID THAT. Sometimes our spouses bug us, right? But it’s not even about that, it’s that there are so many other things in our life that also make us happy! And there is no way that your spouse can satisfy all of those things simply because you have different likes and interests.

I think that when we change our mindset to creating a joyful marriage, rather than a happy marriage, we can all be a lot happier and take a lot of pressure off of ourselves as couples trying to succeed. So many couples struggle, and I’m sure if they were asked right now if they had a happy marriage, they would say no. But if they can find moments of joy in their marriage every week, they can say they have a joyful marriage. I don’t know about you, but I already felt a sense of hope, satisfaction, and optimism just typing that!

I hope you’ll join me in focusing on joy in 2017! Each week I will share what joys I found in my marriage, in the hope that this exercise can help bring more feelings of gratitude and positivity for me, and hopefully can help others choose joy more! So make sure to follow me on Facebook and Instagram to look for these posts and participate!