It's that time of year again.....

So a few years ago I started adopting a word for the year. It always seems like a good idea until I pray about it and get my words. For the first two years, the word was: UNOFFENDED. Yeah, that was like having Patience or Grace as your word. I want to live life unoffended, but that means being in lots of situations where I get to choose between living offended or unoffended. UGH! You can see why it was two years running. (The fact that it isn't my word now has more to do with God's mercy, than my success...)

Last year's word was: INTENTIONAL. That actually went okay. It forced me to be more intentional with my relationships and time, still working on the money thing, but all-in-all a fairly positive year on the word front.

This year, however, is one of those hard ones. This year's word (well, phrase really) is:

JOYFUL TRUST.

I'm perfectly fine with the "Joyful" part. Bring it on! LOVE joy! Would LOVE to have more of it in my life! But then there's "Trust".....

Yes, again, Trust is like Patience or Grace, it just doesn't get exercised in the good times. You've got to be in precarious situations to learn trust. I don't like precarious situations. But here's the thing. The year has already started out on a precarious note, so I'm going to be trusting whether I like it or not. The key issue for me isn't learning to trust, though I DO need to work on that. The key issue is attitude. See I pair trust with words like Ruthless, Staunch, Unyeilding. Hard words for hard times. I don't generally think of trust (or approach it) in terms of Joy. I let the circumstance dictate my attitude. It's a precarious time so I woman up, grit my teeth and hang on to that trust tooth and nail....and inevitably miss all that is good and beautiful around me. I lose the Joy. And I don't think that's how it's supposed to be.

Keep in mind, please, that Joy and Happiness aren't the same thing. This isn't Happy Trust....there are times where that's not only incongruous, it's just plain ridiculous. Happy Trust can't show up in the dark times because happiness can't live there. But Joy can. Joy is contentment and hope instead of despair. Joy is peace instead of worry. Joy is anticipation instead of dread. We can create a sense of happiness, a sense of pleasure, but Joy (to paraphrase C.S. Lewis) comes from somewhere else. We cannot manufacture Joy. Joy is THE byproduct of truly trusting in the Trustworthy. It is the byproduct of knowing the Truth and being set free by it.

And so begins the year of JOYFUL TRUST. I have a lot of reasons to fear and dread the year, but I have decided to choose JOYFUL TRUST instead. And today is Day One.

Just out of curiosity, did you pick a word for the year? If so (and you want to) please share it in the comments below.

Happiness is... a Kraft-y Hearts Blog Share

Hi All! Welcome to Day 3 of the Kraft-y Hearts Blog Share. This month we're sharing some Floral Happiness with you, and happy it is! Today's project is a little reminder:

I happened to be at Brave Girls Camp last week and was reminded again that while we can't always control our circumstances, we can always choose our attitudes toward them. Since I can have an amazingly short memory, I thought I'd just make myself a little reminder to hang on my wall. 

I covered a piece of heavy-duty chipboard with scraps of paper from the Claire and Surf's Up paper packs and coated them with Mod Podge to make sure they were nice and adhered. After letting the Mod Podge dry (an extremely important step that can't be skipped or rushed, I promise), I toned the papers down a little by sponging them with White Daisy Exclusive Ink and then inked around the edges with Smoothie Exclusive Ink. I then inked up and fussy cut a bunch of small and medium roses from the Floral Happiness stamp set in a variety of colors: Sunset, Outdoor Denim, Smoothie, Crème Brulee, Hollyhock, and White Daisy Exclusive Inks. I set the roses aside and worked on the sentiment. I layered Sky Cardstock with Claire patterned paper and White Daisy Cardstock. "a" and "CHOICE" are stamped in Sunset Exclusive Ink using the Trinity and Urban Alphabet stamps respectively. "DAILY" is stamped in Sky Exclusive Ink using the Classmate Alphabet [ret.] stamp set.   I stamped "Happiness is..." in Sunset Exclusive Ink on White Daisy Cardstock and used a corner rounder to shape it. I popped that up on a background of Claire paper and then popped the whole thing up using dimensional adhesive. For a little extra flair, I added some Sky bling and bitty sparkles along the edges of both sentiments. I then arranged the roses along the bottom, popping up the last three with dimensional adhesive. 

For the hanger, I used some retired CTMH hardware, light blue and natural jute string from my stash and a Filigree Charm. Unfortunately I couldn't get a good picture of it hanging on the wall, but you can see a little of the hanger in the close-ups below.

Speaking of which....

I hope you enjoyed the Kraft-y Hearts March Stamp Of The Month blog share. Don't forget to hop over and see what Lynn Darda (a.k.a. Queen of Kraft) has for you at From My Bungalow. And, as always,  Floral Happiness can be yours for $5 with any qualifying order of $50 or more, or you can purchase it on its own for $17.95. It is available through 31 March. 

Have a fantastic weekend, and remember: Happiness is.... a daily choice!