Happy 2026!! We’re midway through this year’s first month, but I wanted to take a moment and share a lovely sentiment a friend sent me:

When I say Happy New Year, I’m really wishing you more happy days than sad, more joy than misery, more laughter than tears, more bravery than fear, and the wisdom to accept that they all belong.” –Donna Ashworth

There’s a Pixar film entitled Inside Out that I watched the sequel to recently. It’s an animated look at the emotional conflicts human beings feel when encountering life challenges. Here’s a little overview, if you haven’t seen it: each human emotion is depicted as its own character, and these emotions are in constant interaction, and even in competition, with each other in their mutual desire to help the main character (Riley) be her best self.

My husband doesn’t quite see the values I see in this movie. I remember once sharing my revelation with him about one of the last scenes where “Joy” learns something from “Anxiety” after “Anxiety” learns something from “Joy,” he kind of looked at me quizzically and clarified, “we are talking about an animated movie, right?” Well, yes; but for me at least, that scene depicts the internal wrestling of pure unadulterated emotions that I think most of us can relate to, especially when we’re struggling to make tough decisions. It’s also tempting to think of feelings and even situations in life as “bad” when we’re experiencing sadness or anxiety, so naturally, there’s this tendency to want to push them away and not give them credence because, let’s face it, they don’t feel good, right?

Our world seems to work really hard at creating medicinal cures and outside distractions in attempts to make and keep us “happy.” But are we? If you’ve heard anything like the statistics I’ve come across, as a society, we’re more stressed out than ever! What’s more sad, I think there’s a widespread belief that stress, busy-ness, and all the brokenness in this world are all there is to life.

Yet we are not simply the product of this or that fleeting emotion, deeply-seeded or darker feelings, mistakes, or whatever our personal broken parts consist of. Not even our accomplishments or positive decisions define us, as much as this world would like for us all to believe.

Truth is, we’re all such a blend of so many belief systems and environmental factors that have contributed to who we are, and still we are ever so much more than any of that. Thankfully, the Spirit working through a multitude of people and situations over the years has bolstered my faith…the same Spirit working through you and me. Created in His Image and Likeness, we are inherently *good.* Yet our fallen human nature is what gives us such a hard time facing life’s challenges with faith.

The irony? When we allow ourselves to remain open to His Grace, He can use all of our emotions, experiences, and broken parts for our ultimate good, and strengthen our faith in those promises along the way.

Like the epiphany I had after someone once told me, “Sometimes, you will simply have a bad day…and that’s okay.” That was the Spirit shining some light on that particular darkness I’d held onto for way too long, but to this day, I now hold onto this truth.

So back to this whole notion of Joy vs Anxiety…I can attest to the above because I’m living proof of how our good Lord can bring good out of our mess, and joy from that which I never could’ve attained on my own. Having struggled with anxiety myself, realizing that anxiety in and of itself is not bad took me years to figure out. If you’ve done any reading in psychology, you may have learned that a little bit of anxiety before giving a speech or writing an important paper can actually be motivational, pushing you to do your best work. But mine was more of the disordered kind, and for years, I actually believed the lie that constant nagging anxiety was simply how I was destined to feel, especially on Saturdays. For a variety of reasons, I learned from an early age that as a wife and a mom, Saturdays were meant for doing everything around the house I wasn’t able to get through during the work week, and to do it perfectly, leaving me utterly overwhelmed at the sight of all the work before me, and exhausted and often times depressed by the time Monday rolled around.

Now I know, and I’m here to testify to you, that when we put Him first and trust in His Provision, we can get through whatever is getting us worked up. I get to choose how much power I give anxiety (just enough to motivate me), and know that I have the power within to choose joy…even on a Saturday!

With this little insight in mind for the day (yes, it is Saturday), I allowed myself a bit of sleeping in time without the self-imposed guilt, followed by morning prayer time with my husband (without allowing the nagging voice in my head to remind me of all the things I had lined up to do afterwards), followed by a fruitful day filled with lots of household things, yes–but with a different focus, a ‘new lens’ you might say, and that has made all the difference.

That is my wish and prayer for each of you who may be struggling with similar thought-processes as these, or whatever your current struggle may be. We all have them, in our brokenness as human beings. Resolutions aside, I truly wish you an openness to let Him work in your life, so that you can experience joy that surpasses all understanding; that is, a real Happy New Year!