Arlene Pellicane – Christian Speaker and Author

If you could use a little more joy in your life (and who doesn’t?), you will enjoy Kay Warren’s latest book Choose Joy:  Because Happiness Isn’t Enough.  Kay divides the book into four parts:

Part 1  Joy Is My Inheritance:  Embracing the Permission to Be Joyful

Part 2  Joy Is a Conviction of My Mind:  Discovering a New Way of Thinking

Part 3  Joy Is a Condition of My Heart:  Cultivating a Soul-Response That Allows Joy to Deepen

Part 4  Joy Is a Choice of My Behavior:  Ways to Choose Joy Daily

I could not agree more with these Biblical viewpoints of joy.  Throughout the book, Kay gives Scriptural evidence for joy in Jesus’ life and joy in the believers life.  She is an Eeyore personality, so this writing is all the more meaningful as she can relate to anyone who has ever struggled with trading discouragement for joy.

I appreciated her honest stories of hard times in their family, particularly when her daughter-in-law had a brain tumor.  Here is a family that has been through the hardest types of circumstances and can come through, making a decision to rejoice always.

I really like what she says on page 27:

I used to think that life came in waves:  There was a wave of good and pleasant circumstances followed by a wave of bad and unpleasant circumstances, with a lot of ebb and flow in between.  Or life was a series of hills and valleys; sometimes we’re up, then we’re down.  But I’ve come to realize that life is much more like a set of parallel train tracks, with joy and sorrow running inseparably throughout our days.

We must learn how to live in the tension between good days and bad days – and rejoice in them both.

Thank you Revell for giving me a copy of Choose Joy to read and review.  It is a beautiful book that I can joyfully recommend!