Resolute: admirably purposeful, determined, and unwavering

We decided to post every day in March.  It has been a stretch.  Sometimes guest bloggers that wanted to join us ended up with plates way to full.  Though we know they will be back with us in future months, we had to dig deep to meet our goals.  We are almost there.  As I sat tonight without the original plan, and knowing to meet my goal, I would need to come up with a post... the word RESOLUTE came to my mind.  I looked it up:  admirably purposeful, determined, and unwavering.  Yes, that is what we strive to be!

I can't possibly start at the beginning because I don't have enough time.  {Date night!}. This JOYsister thing, this brainchild, we don't know where it is going, but it's filled with passion and love, and really it's a God thing.  It has grown with us and on us.  The original JOYsisters... Heather, Renae and Lori were like the three musketeers.  They share an amazing history and friendship.  They named themselves the JOYsisters.  But as Heather and I felt a need to reach out into the world we started describing what we wanted to do in the world, the promptings we were having, how we wanted to love up and encircle women...  Gathering up JOYsisters seemed like the right description.  I am so grateful for these three women, and their willingness to share their really amazing and great thing they had going, with the world!  I love them all.  I am grateful that when Heather and I started rolling with this idea of loving, empowering and supporting women on a larger social media scale Lori, Renae and our sister Salena were willing to take a leap with us. Since then several other JOYsisters have joined us.  They are all amazing women, with powerful voices, years of life experience and so much goodness, I am filled with gratitude God has given them all to me as my inner circle.  Along the way I have realized that this thing isn't about having thousands of followers {which we may never have} or increasing our friend group {statistics indicated that you can't maintain more than about 100 close people in your life at any one time}... you just can't have 1,000 best friends.  It isn't possible.  But as we looked at the world, read blogs, read Facebook pages and started seeing repeated patterns and trends in the world, we realized some women have NO ONE.  NO circle.  They spend more time feeling alone than not.  Some of us JOYsisters have been among them at different times in our lives.  We don't like this notion.  We recognize it, but we think it is something worthy of our efforts to change.  We really do believe {as naive as it sounds} that we can change the world.  

We hope that as women are led to and find us, they will recognize that THEY ARE JOYsisters!  They also can change the world.  RIGHT WHERE THEY ARE!  You, me, everyone can.  We are an influence for good, a powerhouse to be reckoned with.  We have so much ability to promote peace, JOY, kindness and love.  We hope that you will draw circles around women, pull them toward you, love each other and that NO ONE will ever be left ALONE.  Yes, I know we are never alone, God is here for us.  He DOES hear us, and answer our prayers and our pleadings.  But if you have ever felt alone like some of  us, if you have ever felt desolate, isolated, sad beyond reason, help or medication even, if you have hurt and cried bitter tears of loneliness, even in the midst of having family, or a spouse, or children... if you have ever felt any of these things... You are not alone in feeling it.  And Sometimes God KNOWS that women need someone present, to sit with them, hold their hand, wipe tears, or even cry with them.  And that is where JOYsisters are born, in the trenches of real life, the beautiful, the good, the bad, the ugly of life.  ALL OF IT.  So join us this year.  I hope you will all begin to identify yourselves as a JOYsister.  For you are powerful and if you muster the courage to regularly choose JOY, you can change the world with us.  

Love and Light,

JOYsister~Christine