The Joy Sisters

We are grateful to end our month with our JOYsister Michelle from MommerForever on  Instagram.  We are inspired by her art and wisdom.  We hope you will be too, as she shares about the ways she has been renewed. ~JOYsister Christine I was asked to contribute my thoughts on a word beginning with “re-“ meaning again & again, repeating, or repetition.  The word RENEWAL came to me.  With Easter being just a day away, I reflect on the ultimate sacrifice made by Jesus Christ so we could be at-one with Heavenly Father AGAIN someday. RENEWED.  I’d like to share a journey of mine with you. I used to get so stuck in my junk. Like I just couldn’t do this or that, I wasn’t good enough or perfect enough, worthy enough, and I let that define me for a VERY long time.  A VERY LONG TIME! I was sick because of it, I was paralyzed from progress because of it.  How did I get out of this state of mind? I started to pray. I started doing ...

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 th...

Sometimes we get to step back through the portal of time and relive a moment, experience a place, recall sweet memories.  Last weekend I got together with life long friends.  Friends that began my adulthood with me and have stuck by me ever since.  We have laughed together and cried together.  Experienced sorrow that rocked us to the core, and inexplicable JOY.  We borrowed a church building where our boys could play basketball and sardines and we could sit and visit.  The particular building we gathered in brought back sweet memories of childhood, teen years and my early years as a young adult.  My sister and I used to sit on that very stage and watch our then boyfriends (her's became her husband) play basketball.  That gym stage that we once sat on while we dreamed of all the possibilities tied to youth, on Saturday had a bag of diapers, wipes, bottles, basketballs, and carseats on it.  Life has changed, evolved and progressed.  B...

I first met my husband when we were seniors in high school.  We didn't go to the same high school, in fact, we grew up almost 45 miles from each other in rural North Dakota. It was a chance meeting in the hallway at a basketball game in Edgeley, ND where we first made a connection. That connection has lasted over 31 years. As our relationship evolved from dating, to engagement, to marriage, to becoming parents. Through all our milestones, we have had to consciously make a decision to reconnect. We have changed so much as individuals in this process, especially considering we started dating as teenagers in high school! ​ We didn't know when we first met how our lives would unfold or what the future held for us. We didn't know the amazing joys and heartbreaking sorrows we would experience together. Yet, we do make the choice to continue to reconnect on a daily basis. As I reflect on how we evolved as a couple over the years, I am struck by the common thread of reco...

We are grateful to have Danelle join us this week for a guest post.   She shares some of her insights on regret. She may only be 19, as she states,  but she is already wise beyond her years. We'd love to hear your thoughts  about regret and how you manage it in life. Comment below. People often say, “live your life with no regrets”. While a nice concept, I believe the only way you can live your life with no regrets is if you can see into the future. Because few “can” the rest of us have to content ourselves to our lives full of mistakes and regrets. The feeling of regret is learned at a very young age. Toddlers will break a rule, get scolded and break the rule again. When they break it a second time however, they remember the scolding and regret their choice. While toddlers may not see their actions in such clear terms, the older they get the more they understand. I’m only nineteen years old. To most people I’ve barely lived my life, and yet I can’t coun...

As a woman and JOYsister, I have spent much of my life living under umbrellas of unrealistic expectations, mine and others.  Mine for myself and mine for others.  And other's unrealistic expectations of me.  When we talked about developing the JOYsister community we wanted to cultivate and nurture a place where women build women.  Where women pray for or sent positivity to other women that need it.  Where women look for the good, lift and love.  AND... a place where a sink of dirty dishes, an enormous pile of laundry, a craft room where no surfaces are easily discoverable, a broken heart, depression, tragedy, hurts...are all safe here.  We wanted to live by the motto, Have Courage and Be Kind.   Recently my niece came to visit and took family photos.  She left me with over 1700 images.  Yes, you read that right.  But I wanted to pick for myself and I am the blessed recipient of my generous and talented niece.  Of those...

I once had a counselor tell me that one of the most important reasons for us to keep a journal is for our own recollection of events. She said that it is very common among once happy couples to completely REwrite their history together and distort it according to how they are currently feeling. That is where language like ALWAYS and NEVER come in, as in "he NEVER complements me", or "she ALWAYS nags".  If we are writing down tender moments, kind feelings, happy memories and recording the good times, instead of our current negative thoughts and circumstances swaying the past, the opposite can actually be true. Isn't that cool?  We can reread, revisit and actually {RE}WRITE our current script. The one that is happening right here and now. We can write JOY into any circumstance by looking at past happy events and reminding ourselves of previous good and happy times. We can remember what we loved about our spouse, a friend, our home, the scriptures, the church...