I have been praying about the next study – but I simply could not find something for the longest time.  Then in one week I found two great books.  Interesting how the Lord prepares our hearts…we moved to a new town this summer.  We moved from bustling San Antonio, Texas – the only home my children remember – to a sleepy little gulf coast town big on charm and short on traffic.  We love our new town: cute little festivals, friendly people, and everything is about 10 minutes away.  But we miss our good friends from San Antonio, many of whom moved away around the time we did or before, we miss our homeschool co-op, and we really miss our favorite Tex-Mex restaurant, Chuy’s!  

Once we got all settled in and began our school year, I had time to realize that moving to a place for only a year is a trickier thing than I had imagined it would be.  Did I mention we got here in May and now have only ten months left?  The shortness of our stay makes volunteering at church and making friends seem less urgent, rather than more so.  It sure is harder to meet other kids when you homeschool – but it’s only ten more months.  My computer router does not like our network set-up and can’t find webpages half of the time, but why trouble ourselves to try to fix it (neither me nor hubby is a techie) – we are only here for ten more months.  Thinking of decorating for holidays or planning kids’ birthday parties seems downright sad – we are only here for ten more months.  Get the picture? The shortness of our time here has gotten me in somewhat of a funk.  Just ask my mom – I always was the kid to wallow a bit if I got the chance.

So, when I couldn’t decide which book to order from Amazon.com, I looked through some I had in my must-read stack (about twenty books high at this point) and found one that my mom had given me called, Heartstrings: Finding A Song When You’ve lost Your Joy, by Jill Briscoe.  It is an eight-week study with chapters to read and questions at the end of each – it is beautiful.  Sadly, it is out of print, but it is available, used, on Amazon (click the book below to find it).  I am going to write a devotional each Tuesday based on a chapter from this book.

Around the same time, my good friend recommended another book on joy called, Reclaiming Your Joy, by Lorraine Hill.  This book is an eight-week study that is a daily devotional on joy.  The daily reading and questions only take about 15 minutes per day, are really insightful, and full of scripture.  The book below links to the Amazon listing but – drat!  Once again not available there now, but will be later.  You can find it on the publisher’s website here in regular print and in ebook!  Remember, the ebook you can order instantly.

When I looked at these two books, I couldn’t deny the Lord was convicting me about my attitude. So I decided to do both!  On Tuesdays, I will post about the weekly reading from Heartstrings, and on Fridays, I will post about the Reclaiming Your Joy devotionals for the week.  I am calling this my Journey to Joy.  

I invite you to join me on my Journey to Joy.  Get one book or both or neither.  Whatever you do, you can follow my Journey to Joy twice weekly.  But, reading the books along with me will not take much time, so I encourage you to get at least one of the books – you won’t regret it.  I am hoping it will help us enter into a wonderful Season of Joy with both Thanksgiving and Christmas coming up during this time!  We will begin Tuesday October 18 and finish Friday, December 16, with a week off for Thanksgiving.  

So, anyone else out there lost their mojo like me?

JustaGirl…just like you!