Let Joy Be Your Journey

By Barbara Pedersen

Did you know that you were designed to live life with joy? In Let Joy be Your Journey, Barbara shares her insights on how to live your life filled with joy by eliminating the things that are pulling you down and celebrating the goodness in your life.

Too often, we are led by situations or people that can steal our joy. Often, these times can weigh on us and take us to a place of emptiness and sadness. In Let Joy be Your Journey, you will learn specific lessons in perspective, change, choice, patience, forgiveness, empathy, hope, learning and gratitude that will build strength, peace, fulfillment and most of all joy in your life. When you choose to let joy be your journey, you realize that joy is a way of life, not a destination. The time is now, empower yourself and Let Joy Be Your Journey today!

• Language: English
• Publisher: BookBaby
• Release date: Jan 28, 2022
• ISBN: 9781667809830

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Let Joy Be Your Journey

© 2021 Barbara Pedersen

All rights reserved. This book or any portion there of may not be reproduced or used in any manner whatsoever without the express written permission of the publisher except for the use of brief quotations in a book review.

Photographic images used in the lessons Copyright 2021 Rinkey Boleman

Paperback ISBN: 978-1-66780-982-3

eBook ISBN: 978-1-66780-983-0

With God’s grace I have lived in joy most of my life. These lessons come from my perception of what can help anyone find joy. In addition to teaching joy to thousands of educators all over the world, I credit my learning to the students I have been blessed to teach and God’s plan for my life.

This book is dedicated to my three sons, Jeff, Doug, and Todd, who have taught me more about faith, life, and love, than they ever learned from me. May their lives always be filled with the same joy they have given me.

My eternal gratitude will always be to God, who makes joy possible, and my late husband, Tom, who taught me more than I realized.

Let the journey begin………

The Joy of the Lord is Your Strength.

Nehemiah 8:10

To My Grandchildren

The lessons in this book are written for you, my dear grandchildren, Jack, Hannah, Charlie, George, Matt, Lydia, Tommy, Lauren, and Nick. You have brought me joy and reminded me about the meaning of life. You have validated my belief in the power of imagination and creativity. You are unique and blessed. Each one of you came into this world with special gifts from God. I can only imagine where your paths in life will take you and all the amazing adventures and blessings that lie ahead for each of you. My hope is that these lessons will help you find joy on your journey called life. Now may God continue to guide you and help you find your purpose.

"Life is not measured by the number of breaths we take,

but by the moments that take our breath away."

Maya Angelou

Contents

Lesson One Perspective

Lesson Two Change

Lesson Three Choice

Lesson Four Patience

Lesson Five Forgiveness

Lesson Six Empathy

Lesson Seven Hope

Lesson Eight Learning

Lesson Nine Gratitude

Acknowledgements

Lesson One

Perspective

It’s not what you look at that matters; it is what you see.

Henry David Thoreau

Perspective About Life

Your perspective depends on what you believe, based on your life experiences and the influences of the people who come into your life. On the other hand, we never know how others are interpreting life. Somebody could have the same experience as someone else but have created a completely different meaning from it. Because of that, remember that your hope is to find joy; you need to pay attention to how you are thinking about people, events, situations, and places. Instead of judging the perspective of others, stay focused on your own perception about life.

When it comes down to the truth about you, other people’s perspectives may or may not be right, so you must live your life based on what you believe to be true, not based on of what others may think about you. Walk your talk, talk your walk, and have outstanding principles in life that are worthy for you to live up to.

"The only thing you sometimes have control

over is perspective. You don’t have control over your situation.

But you have a choice how you view it."

Chris Pine

Same Experiences: Different Perspectives

I was at the airport one day, and a little boy was running beside me in front of his parents. I said to him, Isn’t the airport amazing? How fun to see all of these airplanes. He looked at me and said, Oh no, there is the best part of the airport, McDonald’s. Even with a multitude of planes, his excitement was all about McDonald’s.

His comments help to illustrate why the more experiences you have in life, the more ideas you have about what you understand. He had found joy seeing McDonald’s inside another building and the fact that it was familiar. It seems the planes would have brought him more joy, but that wasn’t his perspective. In your life, you may go to the airport and your only joy is getting through security. Others find joy in different ways, even though they are having the same experiences.

When looking for joy, how you look at life makes a difference. Many analogies exist for this idea such as, Is your glass half full or is it half empty? When you have lemons, can you make lemonade or is life sour? Life experiences can have a positive twist or a negative one, depending on your perspective. I love the story of the two workers hauling heavy stones in a wheelbarrow. When asked what they were doing, the first replied, Hauling rocks, and the second replied, I’m building a cathedral. How do you see what you are doing right now? Are you finding joy? Do you need to change your perception?

Remember, how you respond is all about your own perspective. No matter what the situation is, you may see the same thing that I see, but that doesn’t mean you and I will have the same perspective. We may see things differently, and that is all right.

"Return to my woods and see it in a different way.

Perhaps the trees have a new story."

Henry David Thoreau

Different Experiences: Same Perspective

Sometimes we can have different situations that lead to the same perspective. As I walked through the house one day, Lydia, my granddaughter, was reading Call of the Wild by Jack London; Hannah, another granddaughter, was watching the movie Jaws, and my dog Bear was watching squirrels playing in the back yard. Survival was the idea that connected all these experiences but through different eyes. Author, Jack London, believed that you needed to live your lives and not just exist. His perspective of survival was quite different from a squirrel looking for a nut. But when you think about it, Jack London and the squirrel were both looking for a way to find joy in survival.

How Do You Change Your Perspective?

How you perceive people and events affects how you see your own life. One person’s perspective about a situation