Have you ever stopped and wondered, "What happened to my joy?"

Maybe you've been carrying the weight of responsibilities, worrying about the future, taking care of everyone else, or simply trying to keep up with the pace of life. Somewhere along the way, the delight, lightness, and peace you once knew can begin to fade.

In this first episode of Joy Camp Summer, Kristin invites you to rediscover the joy God has always intended for you. Together, we'll explore why so many women feel overwhelmed and disconnected from joy, what steals our peace, and how we can begin finding our way back through God's presence, gratitude, surrender, and simple everyday moments.

Joy isn't pretending life is easy. It isn't denying grief, disappointment, or uncertainty. Joy is learning to notice God's goodness in the middle of real life and trusting that peace is possible regardless of our circumstances.

If you've been feeling anxious, weary, stressed, or like you've lost a part of yourself, consider this your invitation to experience more joy this summer.

You'll walk away encouraged, equipped with practical tools, and reminded that joy is not out of reach.

Join Joy Camp Summer to experience s different kind of summer at kristinfitch.com/joy

• Joy and peace are available to us even when life feels uncertain and messy.
• Worry, unrealistic expectations, busyness, and constant striving often steal our joy.
• We cannot manufacture joy through achievement. Joy grows in God's presence.
• Gratitude trains our hearts to notice God's goodness in ordinary moments.
• Releasing control and surrendering expectations creates space for delight.
• Joy and sorrow can coexist. Choosing joy doesn't mean ignoring hardship.
• Small moments of beauty, connection, play, and wonder help us reconnect with joy.
• This summer can become an invitation to rediscover the woman God created you to be.

Grab the Rewire Your Mind: From Negativity to Joy- download here.

Grab the Joy Rising- Daily Gratitude & Joy Journal here.

Download My Free Joyful Living Devotional: https://kristinfitch.com/devotional

Ready to take your first step towards a more joyful, faith-filled life? Download our Reignite Your Passion Workbook and start living with purpose today!

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Last time, you were overflowing with joy in your life.

Today we're going to talk about why so many of us are living in states of worry or anxiousness.

Why we so often feel like our joy or peace are stolen when God in fact, tells us that we can have that and we can live that way regardless of our circumstances.

So I'm going to share a personal story with you, and then we're going to dig into how can we experience more joy in our lives.

Welcome to Faith Filled Living, the podcast for women who want to find joy again, grow closer to God, and rediscover the woman he created you to it be.

I'm your host, Kristen Fritch.

Each week you'll find encouragement, honest conversations, biblical perspective, and practical tools to help you experience more joy, purpose, and peace in everyday life.

Because the woman God created you to be is still there, and it's never too late to come alive to the life he created you to live.

First, I want to let you know today is the first part of a series called Joy Camp Summer.

And it's really about how do we have the joy and that were promised in the Bible rise up in our lives?

And the first thing that I want to share with you is I think so often we are living by the standards and expectations of the world, and that is why we find ourselves struggling to stay and have God's presence within us and experience the fruit of the Spirit, right?

One of which is joy, another of which is peace.

So we're going to talk about why does that happen and how do we get out of that cycle.

So the first thing I want to share with you is this is an ongoing thing.

I think for believers, especially for women, I think it's hard because we have a lot of expectations on us.

We have a lot of responsibilities.

We have a lot of people depending on us, and so it can be easy to get caught up in the circumstances and we can start thinking about everything else we have to do later today, tomorrow, next month, and that steals our joy.

So today I want to start by asking the question, what is keeping us from experiencing more joy in our lives?

Is it because we're trying to control outcomes or we want things to be just so?

Well, I can tell you that yesterday I had an experience I want to share with you, and it really speaks to the heart of joy and how we can still experience joy in even when outcomes are not what we want and even when things aren't perfect, because if we're being honest, they're never going to be Last night I went to the Jelly Roll concert.

It was in my area, and I had some friends going, and so I met them there.

You know, before the concert, we were hanging out in the parking lot.

And the plan was to play cornhole and hang out.

We had the music going, but a storm that was unexpected came through.

And so we ended up having to sit in the car, gosh, I think for an hour and a half.

And the rain wouldn't have stopped or postponed the concert, but there was some severe weather that came through, and there was lightning that came through.

So some people were already in the facility.

And they just had them shelter under, you know, under roofs or buildings.

But if you weren't already in the concert venue, then they told you to stay in your car.

So it was me and a couple other couples.

My husband was just coming back in town, so he didn't come.

But we laughed in the car, especially me and some of the girlfriends, and said, this is the best part of the concert, right?

Like, yes, we didn't plan on this, but we just had fun.

And we were laughing.

We were sharing, you know, pictures from other events we've been to or things like that.

And when we got into the concert.

Well, actually, before we got into the concert, there was a super long line to get in because the show is basically sold out.

So it was close to 20,000 people going to the show.

But because of the rain or weather delay, a lot more people are trying to get in at the same time instead of over several hours.

So when we had to wait in a long line, I had to use the porta Potty instead of waiting to get to the bathrooms inside.

And then when we did get inside, we popped into the bathroom, and I saw myself in the mirror, and it was a sight for sore eyes.

My hair was just, like, wet because it had gotten a little bit wet from standing in the line.

It was still kind of misting and a little bit drizzly.

And my hair was just frizzy and it looked crazy.

I realized I had a little bit of mascara under my eyes.

Anyways, so as we're walking to find a spot to put our chairs because it was already so crowded.

I'm sitting there feeling a bit overwhelmed, right?

It's like, oh, my gosh, this is like too many people.

And this just feels so chaotic, you know?

And, you know, we haven't.

We're not hearing any music yet.

So anyways, we finally settle.

We get our seats, and finally Jelly Roll comes on.

And even he acknowledged, like, listen, you know what?

Guys, like, we're so thankful you're here.

Even the rain and the delay and the postponement, none of that stopped you.

And it was still a full, practically sold out show.

Like it was the max that the, the amphitheater can hold.

It's a $20,000.

20,000 Person max.

And we were like literally about at 20,000 people.

So why do I say all this?

I say this to say to you.

It would have been really easy to let the bad weather, the change of plans, the show being postponed by some period of time.

It could have dampened our spirits, right?

It could have made us feel irritated or frustrated or like I said, I just looked a little crazy, if I'm going to be honest.

And none of us want to look ridiculous, right?

We hope that we can show up to events, especially I don't go to that many concerts that you can look decent for, for wherever you're going.

So it would have been easy for us to let it steal our joy, right?

Let it steal our.

The benefit of doing it or going with friends.

But once we got settled and we got near our seats, even though I based, I stood up the entire time, actually.

But we danced and, you know, sang to some of the songs and he sang his songs, he sang a couple covers that everybody knew, but it was, it was just such a good feeling, right?

And of course he talked about his faith and he had shout outs to a couple people that had signs of things that they've overcome.

You know, the first thing he did is he, you know, gave all the attention and praise to the Lord, you know, not to, you know, him or the band.

So it was just, it was, I felt like such a good place to be, you know what I mean?

And I just like his story.

Where he came from, what he walked through, and then who he is today.

But I say all this to say, this is why I'm doing Joy Camp Summer.

This is why I'm inviting you to experience more joy in your life.

It's because when we let go of trying to control so many things, when we let go go of trying to live the way the world is telling us that we need to live, right?

More commitments, more busyness, getting more into a day, booking our schedules, trying to make things be just a certain way, when we live that way, we will experience less joy.

Because it's when we are in God's presence, it's when we let go and of control, we surrender ourselves.

That is when we start seeing the joy that's there, right?

The fruit of the Spirit of one of which is joy.

So that's what we're going to dig into today.

And the other thing is when we hold on to things that we aren't meant to hold on to, I think it also steals our joy.

What am I talking about?

Things like your heart being hardened because you're still holding on to a memory.

Somebody did something to you.

Or you're holding on to unforgiveness.

Maybe you're holding on to a trauma.

Maybe you're holding on to tendencies that you learned as a child.

Right?

Like, I have to do it myself.

I have to do everything myself.

I have to make this perfect, or else someone will think that I'm not good enough.

Whatever it is.

We all have things.

We've all walked through things.

But when those things stay front and center or when they stay in our heart, it's really hard to have a space for more joy and more peace.

And so we need to do the work to release those things.

And one of the ways we do that is we get in scripture.

We.

We remind ourselves.

We read the scripture that promises us, like, if we can release the.

For the unforgiveness, if we can release the trauma, it doesn't mean it didn't happen.

It doesn't mean that we forget.

It means that we let it stop running the show, right?

We stop living in the past, and we start living in the present moment.

That is where God's at.

And I'm not saying it's easy.

It takes time, it takes effort, and it takes work.

But when we do that, we start experiencing more of the Holy Spirit within us.

And we also get to be a vehicle.

We get to partner with God to be of service to other people and to look at life differently.

Right?

We get to renew our minds.

We get to realize that we don't have to do everything in a day or a week that we feel we have to do because God never designed us to live that way.

And I want to share with you another example of something that happened in my life.

Now, this is not a major thing at all, but it's just an example of how we can get caught up in life or what we think about life or the story we're telling ourselves in and that can keep us from experiencing more joy.

And here's another example of how I let my thoughts steal my joy.

I was.

I feel like I was in a really good place.

Like, the days were going well.

I was feeling fulfilled in some way with the work I was doing with the podcast and other things.

But then something happened and in my personal life, and I just started feeling kind of.

I was starting to have a pity party for myself.

If I'm going to be honest.

I just felt a little FOMO towards something, and I guess you could say a little bit left out of something.

And here's the thing.

It wasn't.

It had nothing to do with me.

But sometimes we make it about us, don't we?

And I'm going to tell you, for three days, I just was.

In three or four days, I was in a rut.

Like, no matter what I was doing, I just kept going back to certain thoughts, and I didn't want to have those thoughts.

And my joy was absolutely being taken away from me.

My peace was being taken away from me.

And if I'm going to be honest, it kind of stunk because I thought, why does my mind keep going back here?

You know, like, it wasn't even anything bad or anything.

It was just me, like I said, feeling bad for myself when I didn't need to, and I shouldn't have.

Because one thing I've learned is not everything's for us.

Even if it seems like, you know, a friend or family or someone over here is having a great time or they're doing something that you think, well, I would.

I would like to do that.

But sometimes we might have something else that's meant for us in that day, or maybe there's something else that we need to experience, and it's not that.

And so that's just our.

Our humanness.

Right?

It gets caught in the.

It gets in the way of us experiencing everything God has for us.

So the first thing that I want to.

And maybe you're like me, maybe you've experienced what I'm talking about, or maybe you're just in such a tough time right now that it's hard to find joy.

It's hard to feel, I don't know, grateful.

You're just.

You're struggling through something, and I get that.

I mean, I think we've all experienced hard things.

We've experienced loss.

Maybe a diagnosis.

Maybe you're not where you want to be, right, With a health goal, or maybe you've just lost your job, whatever it might be.

Those things are hard.

And it doesn't.

I'm not trying to say, like, oh, just put on your.

Your happy face.

That is not what we're talking about.

We are talking about what the Bible says, which is we can have a deep gladness and delight that just transcends our circumstances because Basically, our relationship with God, our eternal hope and trust in him and then him being within us, right?

Giving us the fruit of the Spirit.

That is how we experience joy and peace and gladness and all these things.

And so I want to share with you just a couple things.

First, let's share a scripture.

So I think the first one is it Nehemiah 8, 10 says, for the joy of the Lord is your strength.

Why does it say that?

Because, friends, when we are joyful, when we are full of the Spirit, it strengthens us, allows us to continue on our day.

Instead of being discouraged or worn down, we're joyful.

Like, we go into our work, our chores, tending to, caring for our loved ones.

We go into all of it with a joyful heart, right?

A heart of gladness.

And when we do that, everything shifts.

An example of that is this.

I mean, I don't know about you.

I'm not somebody that loves doing laundry or cleaning, you know, excessively cleaning.

I have friends that are much better at that than me.

That is not a gift of mine.

But we all have to do it, right?

We all have to do the dishes and clean the counters and all the things.

But I find that when I do it from a place of either I just need to get this done or it's caring for my family when I shift my perspective about it.

And then I go and put on some music, often worship music, but also I like Caribbean or reggae, you know, just.

Just music that gets me pumped, it gets me excited, it puts me in a good mood.

And often, like I said, it's.

It's Christian music.

Because that also, you know, just kind of gets my spirit settled.

But when I do that, and, you know, maybe I do a move or two around the kitchen or as I do the laundry, something shifts when I'm doing the work, right?

I start having joy within me.

But if I were to just start off that task or the chore or rushing, you know, somewhere, for instance, my kids are now older, their college age, or just beyond.

They're all at home.

But when I did have to rush to a sporting event or make them dinner, you know, run out the door, it's easy to let that rushing, that busyness creep in and steal some of this joy from us.

But friends, today's episode all is all about that invitation to experience more joy in your life.

And we're going to talk a little bit about how do we do that?

Like, how do we really do that?

So the first thing is we have to understand that, I think so Many of us, even if we have, you know, gone to church our whole lives, like I did.

Of course I've.

I've changed what type of denomination I've been and things like that.

I've done online, church, in person, church, all different things.

But I knew who God was since I was little.

Right.

My parents were Christians.

But I'm going to be honest, I heard more messages.

Yes.

I heard about, like, God loves us and stuff, but I also had a lot of guilt associated with, like, oh, if you.

And it wasn't fire and brimstone, but it was more like messages that made me feel like if you did something wrong, you know, you were a sinner or that was bad.

And I'm not saying that that's wrong.

What I'm saying is I must have missed the Sundays or the Bible readings that talked about delighting in this life in that God actually wants so much more for us, and I think so many of us.

It's like, it's like a asterisk or secondary to the.

Some of the other messages of the Bible.

Yes.

You know that when we follow Christ that we.

We have everlasting life, right?

We're.

We are.

That he's basically taking our sins away by getting on the cross.

But here's what I'm talking about.

Even the Sabbath, right?

Or Shabbat in Hebrew, which is that day, right?

To rest.

So.

Right.

Remember even God when He was creating everything, the creation story is six days that he created everything.

In the seventh day, he rested well.

He gave us that same gift.

And so many of us think that that sounds like, oh, gosh, like, oh, you mean this is like more church and we need to just do everything about, like, Bible.

The Bible.

No, actually Sabbath.

Shabbat actually means several things in Hebrew, but one of the things it means is to delight.

And what I'm saying is on the Sabbath, we are actually to take a day to not work.

Right?

We're to rest.

It's to renew us for the.

The next week, to give us what we need.

It's also to.

To help us connect with God, to slow down, to connect with each other.

And it's to delight in the things that we enj.

It can be a good meal with your family.

It can go be going on a hike.

But once again, if we start realizing that the things that God tells us in the Bible, the way he guides us, is actually gifts to us, he's trying to help us.

Just like saying, do not worry, do not be anxious, renew your mind every day.

All of that is a gift, if we can live that way, to experience a better, a richer life.

Now, this does not mean that it will be without hardships or without difficulties.

You know, he's not saying that, but he's saying, in spite of all those things, if you're in my presence, if you trust me, if you have hope in me, you can still have gladness.

You can still just, you know, really have such appreciation.

And the next thing is, is you.

Even at the beginning, when Adam and Eve are in Eden, I think the first two words that he speaks is to be fruitful.

And a lot of people take that as to, like, multiply, which, of course, is potentially part of it.

But it also means to thrive, to create, to make more from what you've been given, right, in the Garden of Eden.

And so it means many different things.

But my point is, once again, that has to do with abundance.

That has to do with having us, if you will, delight, to create, to care for, right?

Everything that was already there.

But if you think about that, how joyful is that if we actually did that and if we didn't try to cram several days into one day.

So one of the things I want to share with you is how do we.

How do we start shifting into this more joyful state?

Well, one of the things we're told to do, right, is to give praise and thanks, you know, every day to God.

And so the thanks is kind of like the being grateful, right?

Having gratitude.

And so what if you shifted your.

Your habits so that you were continuously being grateful?

I call this my micro gratitude practice.

And what that means is, throughout the day, I just have an internal dialogue with God and I just say, lord, thank you so much.

I love these beautiful flowers.

This color is amazing.

Lord, thank you for the vegetables growing in my gard, the taste of this herb.

Oh, I'm so thankful for it.

I love basil.

I love rosemary.

Lord, thank you for getting my husband safely home from his work trip.

Like, so I'm just constantly in a dialogue.

I mean, I also do write down what I'm grateful for.

Sometimes I go through those kind of journals or daily gratitude practices.

But it's staying in a state of gratitude.

And then it's also being aware of what God's already done for us, right?

Because we can have hope in the Lord, and we know he's already fulfilled promises, he's already blessed us in other ways, but we need to be reminded of that.

And so remembering, reminding yourself of those things, the next thing is realizing that God's Going to use you when you're available and you actually are present.

If you're busy on your phone and you're on to the next thing and you're not paying attention to who's around you or where you're been placed, then you will miss the opportunities.

But if we're always open hearted, if we're always ready for the next assignment, once again we're going to be more joyful because we're going to get to participate and partner with God in doing something for someone else that matters.

It can be the smallest gesture, it can be opening the door for someone, or it can be much bigger.

Where we impact lives in ways we don't even know and we may never know on this side of eternity.

So that's another thing.

The next thing is, are you paying attention to where God's present in your day?

Maybe you hear that, that small voice within you.

Maybe you, you just allowed yourself a moment to be in awe or in wonder of just what God's created.

The sunset tonight, you know, the, the wind or the rain that fed your plants and just the calming sound of it.

So often we get caught up in everything that we miss the wonder, we miss being in awe of God's creation or in God's blessings and promises.

And we also sometimes miss the miracles, right?

We, we try to control so many things.

We're not actually realizing that all the things, the divine timing, the divine assignments, the people that have come into our lives, the encounters, all those things.

And so that is something else that we need to sort of be aware of.

And of course getting in God's word, being present with the Lord, making time throughout your day, even if it's just minutes throughout the day, getting quiet, putting down your phone, stepping away from your computer, maybe it's taking a walk outside, maybe it's sitting on your porch, you know, whatever it might be, maybe it's going to a quiet space in your house for just a minute just to say, Lord, you know, give me the strength or you know, just help me be more present in this moment.

But each of these things help us start living in a more joyful state.

The next thing I'd say is along the lines of delight.

The Lord actually designed us to have certain interests and desires and things that pull on our heartstrings.

He's designed us for certain things that we love well, when we do more of those things, when we're more of who he made us to be, we are more joyful because we're stepping into how he made us for the world.

But of course, he wants us to.

He wants us to use those gifts, those abilities, those interests to serve the world.

Right?

Our friends or our family or our communities.

And so that's another thing, is step into those things because it matters.

And another thing I'll share.

So I love this.

Let's see.

This was Ian Simpkins.

He's a pastor that I follow online.

And he even says, live, live with a hope worth asking about.

In other words, when we live with hope and joy, that is not like society.

Other people want to know why.

And then that's when eventually you get to talk about the fruit of the Spirit, right in Christ.

And then he shared what Dietrich Bonhoeffer said, who was a Christian.

I don't know if he's apologetic, but he was a Christian writer and he says your life as a Christian should make non believers question their disbelief in God.

And I love that.

But think about it.

The person that has peace and they have the deepest joy and they have this calm about them when everyone else doesn't.

When everything seems to, you know, be going wrong and the world seems out of control, which it does tell me that you don't want to know why that person is that way or has that or something happens extreme in someone's life, maybe a loss, and yet they're a level of forgiveness, their level of still being grateful in that walking through that time, that place is just crazy.

Okay, I want to share another scripture with you, and then I'm gonna.

I'm going to give you a couple questions that you can write down and ask yourself as you try to step into more joy this week.

Okay?

But remember, rejoice, enjoy.

Right?

They're connected to the same concepts in the Bible, but basically just rejoice, like keep giving joy, keep being joyful in hope.

Right, Is what that's kind of saying there.

And of course, be patient in how we're acting.

And then, of course, be in constant prayer.

Right?

That praise, give praise and thanks.

Once again, when we get into doing life, being present with the Lord, we will experience more fullness of joy.

So it's so important.

Okay, so I want to share with you a couple questions.

So first of all, obviously this episode had a lot of food for thought for you to think about.

And the first thing I'd say is just what hit you right in the episode?

Like, what resonated with you?

What thing that I said either triggered something in you, right?

Like it was kind of like.

Or which thing just like made you think, like, yeah, I so get that.

Or I so relate to that.

Because that might be the area that you want to move towards or hone in on, right?

Either you want to make a change or you want to go more towards the thing that kind of clicked with you today.

Or like I said, it could have irritated you a little bit because maybe it's truer than you want to admit.

So here are some of the questions, actually, before I say the questions.

So today's whole episode is really about that joy is part of God's design.

He wants us to have a deep rooted gladness, a deep rooted joy.

He wants us to delight in the world.

He's given us so many gifts.

And when we actually apply the Bible to our lives, we experience more of all of the fruit of the Spirit.

That's what he wants for us.

Yes, there's going to be hard things.

Yes, we're going to have things that just kind of bring us down to our knees.

But through all that, there's God, right?

And he's present.

And even in these hard things, we can find joy, meaning people that are there for us, people that are picking us up, people that are doing life with us.

We can feel the presence of God.

We bring upon us a calm, a peace, a joy that doesn't make sense without Him.

So there's all these things.

Okay, so on to the questions for today.

The first is, where have I lost joy in my life?

Right?

Like, is there a certain part of your life that's just causing you, I guess, turmoil or angst or whatever it might be?

And so you do not feel joy in that space or place or in that area.

Okay.

Because that's probably an area you want to work on, whether it's.

You want to pray to God about the circumstance, right.

Or the thing.

Maybe it's your workplace, maybe you feel like your workplace is toxic.

Well, first of all, I would say to you, write down about that and then write down what you're feeling about it and why you think that you're struggling to find joy in that place.

And I also say, take it to God, like, pray to him and say, like, lord, bring bring upon me.

And in this space, like, change my heart or change my perspective on this or if it's something that can't be changed.

Like, try to think about how is God using you?

Meaning sometimes we feel stuck some somewhere.

But I've had some great interviews and different people.

And one pastor shared, Jason Laird, that we're normally not stuck in a job or in a situation we're stationed.

In other words, God is going to use us if we allow it.

Even when maybe we're restless and we know something new is coming, or we're not wanting to stay where we're at, but in this moment, while we're still there, he can use us.

Okay, so that's the first question.

Where have I lost my joy?

The next question is, what is stealing my joy?

And often it has to do with us.

Yes, it might have to do with a circumstance or a person or maybe our financial situation or something.

But what is stealing our joy?

And often it's the story we tell about the thing.

Right?

Like Mike, this one co worker of mine, she drives me crazy.

I can't stand her.

But are we so clouded by the person that we're losing sight of the fact that our heart's been hardened?

And maybe we're holding on to resentment or bitterness or anger towards that person, but that's going to keep us from having an open heart and being able to experience more joy.

So we just need to get honest about it.

We need to reflect on it, and maybe we need to start praying for that person or pray for a change in heart within ourselves.

All right, the next question is, what might God be inviting me into today or in this season?

Because the more that we realize we have this beautiful opportunity to partner with him, we have an opportunity to just like literally show up in the world and just be present and be joyful.

It's amazing because when we start realizing that it's all about people and opportunities and moments and it's less about, you know, did we check off everything in our to do list?

Truly, because those most of those things can wait until tomorrow.

If we do less in a day, it's more about the moments or the time we invested with other people.

The moment that even though we were busy on our way to a meeting, we stopped and talked to a stranger that needed an encouraging word.

But when we start seeing life different, life will be different.

I have experienced this over the years, and yes, sometimes it's taken me walking through things.

When one of my sons came home from college with severe depression, he was really struggling.

I mean, he came home early, he didn't finish the semester, and he did not go back to that school.

That was really hard to watch your child struggle.

And I know a lot of people can connect or relate to this, right?

Like a loved one, especially a child going through something hard.

But I started realizing that the smallest things are the biggest things in my day.

I know, right?

I'm getting emotional.

I wrote an article.

I did a podcast episode, and I said, I think the most important thing I thing I did today was make my son peanut butter toast, right?

Like, that's not all I did.

I went to his appointments with him.

I took him to try to figure out what was going on.

We tried to be supportive.

But what I'm telling you is walking through hard things lets you appreciate life in a different way.

Do you see what I'm saying?

I knew that God was so present before he came home because we had no idea our son was struggling.

But something came over me.

The Holy Spirit spoke to me maybe three weeks before he came home.

And I just knew that I needed to call him.

I knew I needed to say certain things to him.

And then I just kept checking in on him.

That could have gone really different, right?

Or he could have.

Something worse could have happened.

And what I'm saying is the joy that I have that I still have my kids at home, right?

Like that, that he came home, that he trusted us enough to tell him.

But then another thing that I walked through, my dad passed away last February.

But for maybe.

I don't know if it's five years, but for a handful of years in his 70s, he passed when he was.

I think he was about.

I think he was 82, but he had Parkinson's.

But, you know, it just kept progressively getting worse.

And I would say the last year and a half, it was.

It was pretty bad.

But the.

The last year was very difficult.

In the last couple months, for sure, he had some dementia, but he always had a joyful heart.

He always had this love of God and just, like, awe of his children.

But it just got to be so bad where he, you know, he could barely, like, lift his legs.

They were.

So they would shake and spasm and, you know, he just lost his streng strength and just everything.

Like, it was just really hard to watch.

But what I learned during that season was making time to go over my dad's as often as possible.

That was some of the most important things I did in those days.

Yes, I did probably a hundred other things.

I worked on my podcast, in my work, in my ministry.

I served my families, right?

Like, I made Time for friends.

Like, I did all these other things.

But that time, if I had put the time in right one day in the future, which I didn't know at the time, I wouldn't have any more days to spend with him.

So what I'm telling you is be joyful in the relationships.

Like, make the time.

Invest yourself in people and in your community.

Like, the things.

Because that's the things that matter.

But that will bring upon us joy because we know that we are showing up to love people.

We're showing up to help people.

We're showing up to be a good friend or a good daughter or a good spouse or a good parent.

Like, there is joy to be found in that.

Even when my dad struggled so much, it brought him so much joy for us to come and be there, whether it was just a visitor, whether it was to help him so my stepmom could get a break, whatever it was, and I could have joy in knowing that I was doing the good and right thing and that I was participating in his care.

And so I only share this to say don't miss the opportunities that there is joy to be had, right?

And honestly, even with him passing and working for a month on his celebration, it was such a good month.

Like, me and my sister especially, and my stepmom would get together so much and we'd work on, like, what would he want?

And, you know, he wanted it to be a celebration.

And then my brothers would help as well.

And just that day and just hearing the stories and there was so much joy even in the sadness, is what I'm saying, if you allow it and if you're open to seeing it.

Because it can be hard when you're going through something hard.

It can be hard to see those.

Those joy sparks or, you know, those.

Those moments, those glimmers where people show up, they shine, they just show up in love, they show up in service.

They show up to, like, just support you and come around you.

So don't miss those things.

Like when you're thankful, when you're grateful, you will see things that you didn't see before.

You started shifting how you show up in the world.

And it's amazing.

I want to share this quote with you about joy.

It's by David Steindahl Rast.

He says, it is not joy that makes us grateful, it is gratitude that makes us joyful.

And I love that.

And here is what I want to leave you with today.

I want to leave you with one small step to take, right?

One small action.

And this Is what it is.

One, can you write down for the next week something you're grateful for each day?

And if this is hard for you, I will tell you this.

When my son came home with depression, I would ask what he's grateful for.

And to be honest with you, even to today, he rarely can tell me many things.

He's always struggled with these sort of things, like open ended questions that you ask him.

But the one thing he could always say is, I'm grateful for the dog.

Like, you know, our dog, my dog.

It's literally like the family's therapy dog.

But there's always something that you can write down, even if you're going through like the toughest time.

So that's one thing.

And then the other action stuff I'd say is what is one thing you can do different to try to have more joy in your life?

Maybe it's going and dropping off flowers to a neighbor, maybe it's writing a note to a friend.

Like, maybe it's deciding, you know what, I'm going to get out of my rut, my, my routine, and I'm going to do something different.

Like I love going to the beach.

I went on Saturday.

But it's just certain things are just good for the soul, right?

Like sometimes getting out of your comfort zone, shaking up your routine, you will first experience like maybe happiness or like this release, right, of the stress of the normal day or whatever.

But then you'll start to feel joy, you know what I'm saying?

So that's what I'd say to you is like one, write down something you're grateful for each day this week.

And then two, go do something that you don't always do.

Maybe you're the person that doesn't usually talk to the person in the grocery store line beside you.

You know what?

Maybe this time, you know, this week, maybe say something kind to them, maybe give them a compliment.

Go invite a girlfriend to do something that you haven't done in forever.

Whatever it is, just do something that gets you out of your comfort zone, because I will share this with you.

Pastor Carolyn Haas says something I love, and she says, your comfort zone is the greatest enemy to God's miracle zone.

What?

And then she says your comfort zone is the greatest enemy to the joy in your life.

And guys like, seriously, getting stuck in the cycles of life, getting stuck in doing too much, getting stuck in mundaneness.

And I don't mean mundane in the fact that ordinary days can be miraculous or ordinary days can hold so much that we don't always see that is true.

What I'm talking about, though, is if our days become monotonous, if we never leave our homes and we're always comfortable, we're going to miss the adventure God wants us to step into.

We're going to miss the opportunity to be part of the miracles in other people's lives.

And we might even miss the miracles that God's trying to position in our own lives.

And so, like I said, go and do one thing that's out of your comfort zone.

Go do one thing that you haven't done in a long time that you know would would lift you up or that would just allow you to get a break from your everyday life.

So that's what I'm encouraging you for this week.

And I want to remind you, if you haven't already, head over to to kristinfitch.com joy and you can then get my weekly emails and join us for JOY Camp Summer.

I would love for you to join us.

I'd love for you to share this episode or that URL with a friend.

Do it with some friends.

Let's make this a joy movement.

Let's agree to have a summer full of just joy bubbling up and rising in our lives and let's have people come along with us.

So please go join me.

Let's do this together.

Let's see how much joy that we can make happen in our lives and the people around us between now and fall.

Okay?

And remember, next week is part two of experiencing more joy in your life.

I think it'll be a much shorter episode, but this was the, you know, this was kind of like the kickoff, so it is a little bit longer than I expected.

So come back, look for this episode next week.

It should probably drop Wednesday.

That's usually when I publish.

So until then, I hope you have a great week.

I hope that you can find more fullness of joy in your everyday life.

If you enjoyed today's episode.

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