Good Sunday morning everyone. I want to talk to you all about peace and joy. I had been going through some things for about 4 years now. And people would have thought that I had peace and joy but I didn’t. It’s so easy to fake and hide how you feel from other people. I’ve always been good at masking my feelings, but something had to give and quickly. I started going to counseling to deal with my feelings and what was going on. That helped me so much at the time. She gave me tools to help me and I’m at a place that I never thought that I would be at. I had to take some hard looks at my life and who was in my life. Was I okay with how things were going? Why did I put up with certain things? Just because we are friends and family doesn’t mean you can treat me a certain way. There were so many things that I had to figure out and it wouldn’t be overnight. But once you start putting in the work for yourself you start to see changes. And you can’t give up or give in either. You have to stick to your plan because you have to understand you are just as important as anyone else. I didn’t value myself or even love myself like I thought I did. I was so busy making sure others were okay and had what they needed from me, that I didn’t even give myself what I needed. Fast forward to now. When I smile it’s genuine. When I laugh it’s from the heart and sincere. When I tell you that I have worked so hard to get to where I am and I refuse to let anyone take that from me. My peace and joy took me a long time to find and I have found them. I’m still not done doing the work myself but the results so far are amazing. I have read so many blogs, Instagram posts, and Facebook posts about people wanting to make a change and how it’s hard. Yes, it’s going to be hard but you have to start somewhere if you want to change your life. No one is going to do the work for you. You have to commit to doing better for yourself. When will you put yourself first? When will you change? Listen if this is you start today. Start by journaling your feelings. Start by asking yourself the hard questions. Start by googling books that can help you with what you’re going through. Start by looking for a therapist if that’s what you need. But the main thing is to start somewhere. Don’t give up on yourself or put yourself to the side. You wouldn’t do that for anyone else so why would you do that to yourself? Peace and joy take time but when you find it you will know that it was worth putting in the work.

I have heard a lot about joy. And I have talked to people who said that joy is more important to them than happiness. And as I thought about what they said. I started to really wonder about joy. Happiness comes and goes but joy is something that is with you always. And as this year is about me and working on me I needed to truly understand the joy and who to have joy. I have been learning some important lessons about joy and just being a better me. I can say that happiness is not a problem. But joy, I’m learning to have it. And so far it’s a lesson. Joy doesn’t come easy it’s something that has to be practiced. And I’m on the road to having more joy in my life. So do you have joy? What have you done to get and keep it in your life?