Joy-Eyes

Yesterday's weather was glorious--windy, mid-60's, fresh, and sunny. Luke and I sat under a tree, munched on a stack, and felt the sun on our faces.

I felt that moment and embraced it--brought it in closely to my heart and fiercely hugged it.

The joy snuck in on me and I couldn't help but just let it be. It was one of those moments that I wish I could just bottle up and keep forever--those moments that you are just so darn thankful for where you are.

So often I feel this pressure to have this crazy, wild, and different life. I dream big things, but I have a simple life. I feel pressure to hustle instead of slow down.

That pressure to do and be more can float over my heart and shadow the good and the joy in my life. Instead of fully enjoying moments, I get stuck in thinking "if only"--which are perhaps the two most dangerous words in my vocabulary.

But when I delete those words from my inner voice, I see joy in so many more moments in my life. As it is.

Not as it was or as it will be or as it could be.

As it is. Simple + slow.

God gave me this life. This one. God gave me this season. And I'll only have one chance to live through it.

It doesn't mean that I don't itch for things to come, it just means that I am learning to open my joy-eyes more often and clearly see the sweet gifts that God gives me in my daily life.

The gifts of sunshine, a goofy grin on my son's face, and holding hands with my husband under the stars. Honestly, it's often the simple things (not the extraordinary things) that press into my heart.

I experience these moments with joy-eyes; eyes that see and experience the joy that only God gives. I know this because even on the stickiest or darkest of days, I can open my joy-eyes and see the little joys and gifts that God gives--the deep-seated, undeserved, and unexpected joys.

What gifts and moments have you seen with your joy-eyes lately?