this is happiness: finding joy in life day 1

i really shouldn't be blogging this late. i need to go study my devotional for ~~tomorrow~~ tonight, and i need to go to sleep since i have to be up and ready by 7:00 am but here i am; because i feel like by the time i might get time to blog again tomorrow everything today will feel like a million years ago.

so today's theme was focusing on finding joy in life. this is something that i feel is a deep subject, but is often overlooked (well at least by me). how often do we get so focused on everything that is going wrong in our lives that we forget the wonderful things that are happening.... or we may even forget to allow wonderful things TO happen in our lives. it almost seems like we don't want to allow ourselves to be happy. my goal today was to teach my girls.... and it is almost like preface the week with the idea that happiness is controlled by the person and IS a choice.

katie gave a really good opening talk today where she said something really simple but it was really profound to me "focus on things that we love and make us happy". wow. what a primary concept. katie read off her list of things that makes her happy, and while she was doing that i found myself thinking about the little things that truly make my day joyful. for instance that moment when you step out of an air conditioned building into the hot summer sun and you can feel your skin tingle. or when you are riding in your car with your sister or best friend and your favorite song comes on the radio... so you sing along at the top of your lungs. i began wondering why we allow ourselves to focus then, on the things that are terrible in our lives. is that because we can't control them? well no because we can't control the temperature of the outside sunshine, or when and what song comes on the radio. so clearly having control... or security.... is not going to make me us joyful. it's god's tender mercies, the little things, that if we allow an attitude of gratitude to fill our hearts will help us to be joyful.

i LOVE this topic that we are studying this week. i love that we can control our happiness. and i love that i am here at retreat for girls.

today didn't go exactly as i had planned. i had only 1 girl check in by 11:25 and then had 10 girls come within about a 40 minute span. one of my girls ended up getting sick and wasn't able to make it today, but we are praying that she will be well enough to join us tomorrow. but needless to say i was feeling pretty anxious (more than usual) during registration.

once i got up and met my girls i realized how truly blessed i am and how much my heavenly father loves me. he has blessed me to be able to be surrounded by some of the most amazing girls. a few of them are crazy and hyper like me, and then there are a few that are painfully shy, and quiet. but they all love each other, and i find that amazing every year. i love watching the barriers break down as i see the girls branching out and reaching out to each other. i love it when i walk upstairs to go meet them for dinner that in the 5 minutes that i had been gone they had run into each others dorms and were showing each other their clothes, and talking about funny experiences they had. absolute bliss.

tomorrow should be an exciting day! we are going to hear from john bytheway, anthony sweat, AND hank smith. it's going to be a powerhouse morning. and then in the afternoon we will have our group time (a 3 hour activity planned by your's truly), a craft, dinner, and a fashion show, plus a devotional that is going to be a challenge in itself. i love this job. i love this program. and i am a truly happy person.