It's summertime and you guys know how I love to sit on my patio and read all the things! You also may have noticed that I have been writing fewer words lately... keeping my thoughts and opinions close to the heart and quiet.
If I'm honest (...and I am that!) part of the reason for my silence is because, well... I am tired, y'all! And after weeks and weeks of feeling a bit too run down, I began to wonder if maybe my Joy was... um, lacking?
Enter The Happiness Dare...
This book, friends... because God is smart and Jennifer is kindred, this book fell into my hands at just the right time! I love them both oh so much!
The Happiness Dare by Jennifer Dukes Lee has the power to be an eye opener and a real game changer.
And I don't know about you, but in this world... at this time... well, who couldn't use a
"Happiness is a feeling, but it's also a decision. It's a choice we get to make every day, even on our hardest days. Happiness is an outward expression of an inward joy that is found in Jesus. Happiness is a gift from a happy God." ~Jennifer Dukes Lee, The Happiness Dare
Listen, here's the deal: I feel in love with Jennifer long before her first book Love Idol came out so I was excited to be on her Book Launch Team the first time around. Love Idol challenged us to put down our masks and lay down any idols that we had been holding up unaware... things or people or places we turned to for approval and love, rather than simply turning to Jesus.
The release timing of that book was perfect in inviting the team to give up an idol for Lent. I had been forking over masks and laying down idols for years, so I thought, easy peasy... only what He asked me to give up was Hesitation and Self-Doubt.
Yeah. That.
So - not easy peasy, but oh so powerful and freeing!
He told me, "...the way I made you is Joy, but it is not shallow! Do not believe that lie. You are meant to be contagious... You are meant to be love... to be joy... to be you."
My natural bent is one of joy... one of laughter... one of looking at the positive and calling out the gold. It wasn't always that way but decades ago, He changed me.
In this world that is full of sadness, darkness brooding, --full of violence and injustice and broken hearts... feeling happy can feel wrong. It can feel shallow or too Pollyanna.
I love that in this book, Jennifer acknowledges that and makes room for that truth. She doesn't tell us to put our head in the sand or to put a band aid on everything and move along. But she does remind us that even on our darkest days... we can choose to run to the Light.
Jennifer Dukes Lee speaks the truth with quotes like these:
"Takers of the Happiness Dare learn that God not only cares about our happiness, he encourages us to go after it. The Happiness Dare is a challenge to enter into a holy pursuit of happiness, to boycott cynicism, to wring the delight out of ordinary days, and to hunt for happiness even when it's hard to see."
"Happiness is not only permissible by God but achievable through him. Happiness is our birthright. It is the holy fuel of our personhood, enabling us to live as the best versions of ourselves. That's the secret the Holy Spirit has been whispering to me. He has been daring me to believe that happy matters. Happiness is one of the best things we can do for ourselves, for our people, and for our God."
"Happiness isn't about what we can hold in our hands. It's about what we holding our hearts."
"When we fight for happiness, we aren't denying the pain of this world, but we are refusing to give in to it... Joy is strength. It has muscle. It's what can make you strong in this busted up world of manifold heartbreak. When we are flattened under the curse of the world, joy is what will help us rise up again, fist in the air. I know it's hard. It's easier to give in to the tidal wave of cynicism in our world. Choosing happiness is courageous. Happiness is the virtue of the brave, not the weak."
~Jennifer Dukes Lee, The Happiness Dare
One of my favorite things in this book was the invitation to find out what your Happiness Style is. There is an assessment quiz that helps identify what your natural 'style' is. Much like learning your 'love language' and the love languages of those around you help you to communicate love more clearly, discovering your happiness style will help you to tap in to happiness and be more contagious!
Jennifer lists five styles. They are identified as The Doer, The Thinker, The Relater, The Experiencer, and The Giver.
My top two were The Experiencer and The Relater!
Want to know your own Happiness Style? Take the Assessment Quiz HERE! (It's free and takes about five minutes!)
In the book, Jennifer takes time to explain more fully what each style means by sharing what makes you tick, what some of the red flags may be, and how to be the happiest you! Who couldn't use that knowledge?
All of that to simply say this:
I think with all the chaos and all the crazy going on in this world, we should all jump in and take The Happiness Dare... we should let Joy rise up and let's wield it as a weapon.
Let's let Love win and choose to find Happy... choose to let our Laugh be loud and to let our Light shine bright... not in a fake, pretend way - but in a Jesus loves me, this I know way!
And if you need a little help, Jennifer also compiled The Ultimate Happy Playlist, and trust me --it's pretty happy! You can listen to that (--again, for free!), by clicking HERE.
Now... on to the Giveaway!
One lucky *U.S. Resident Reader will win your very own copy of The Happiness Dare...
Enter to win:
* I was honored to be a part of Jennifer's Book Launch Team for The Happiness Dare. I received a digital copy (Tyndale Momentum) and the above review is my honest opinion. No Affiliate links were used.
Kelly Chripczuk for #SmallWonders
Holly Barrett for #TestimonyTuesday
This is really timely for me, I definitely need to pick this book up! Just this morning in my quiet time God really spoke to me about how I have lost the joy in my life. Things aren't really bad, I just have no zest or excitement for my feet to hit the floor in the morning. Thanks for sharing!
ReplyDeleteOh friend... exactly this. This is how I was feeling too! Nothing was wrong... but I just wasn't feeling the zest for life! Praying for you!
DeleteWell I love HAPPY. I love to LAUGH. And, according to Jennifer I'm a doer with a strong giver as second!!! Loved this post and book review, and of course YOU.
ReplyDeleteAnd I love you! For oh so many reasons... xoxo
DeleteI'm a giver and Relater! Why does that not surprise me that one of our styles is the same? Such a fantastic book. It has helped me realize that happiness is indeed a choice; a decision. And yep if course we quoted the sane quote. "An outward expression of an inward joy found in Jesus." Love you friend!
ReplyDeleteBecause, of course we did! xoxo
DeleteBeautiful review, Karrilee. I'm curious how God changed you to make your natural bent one of joy? One of my sisters has been like that pretty much from birth and admits it too, that it comes easily to her. It doesn't to me. But sometimes I wonder if God has created me to be the weeping Anna to draw me to others to encourage them through the hard. I cry easily, actually even when I'm happy: like yesterday when God led me to encourage and pray for a stranger- I wept because I saw His love in my leading.
ReplyDeleteMy sister's natural bent to joy lights up a room. She brings laughter and smiles to large groups of people, has since she was little. My Mum told me before she died that I make people feel good: I'm quiet and love one-on-one time, the pensive thinker.
Jennifer's book has given me great tools for pursuing happiness in new ways though...and it's already making a difference. I'm discovering there are pitfalls as a thinker that hold me back from joy.
Oh Anna... I know one thing for sure - He does create each of us individually, uniquely... but if He will change my bent, He will change yours, too! Not that you will be just like me... but that we will both be more like Him! For Jesus was a 'man of sorrow' - yes, but He was also known as a 'man of joy'!
DeleteGod changed my bent because it was cloaked in being fearful... not just because it was not 'joyful' enough. It took work on both our parts... but through prayer, and searching the scriptures, and speaking out loud truth when fear or lies threatened to knock me off course, slowly - my thoughts became more in line with His thoughts! Books like Who Switched Off My Brain, The Battlefield of the Mind, TrueFaced, The Supernatural Ways of Royalty and The Supernatural Power of a Transformed Mind were powerful tools, too!
Oh yes... and don't you just LOVE the Red Flags in the book? So helpful!
DeleteThanks for taking the time to share all this, Karrilee. Fear, yes, it's funny you say that...because in reading The Happiness Dare I've been most convicted of allowing fear to steal my joy...God has brought incredible breakthroughs in the stronghold of fear in my life, but I'm realizing that fear still pervades smaller areas of my life, but smaller areas that are robbing my joy (and others'). I think I need to start praying for God to open my eyes further to each and every nook where fear has prevailed.
DeleteOh and I've joined Arabah Joy's 40 days of praying Scriptural promises and am actually praying it not just over my girls, but also over my husband and I. I definitely believe in praying Scripture...the Word of God never returns void, does it.
DeleteThe more reviews I read on this book, the more I realize I need it. :) Thanks for sharing such an encouraging review. Blessings to you, Karrilee!
ReplyDeleteSeriously, Gayl! It's so good! I hope you entered to win the copy we are giving away! Either way, you'll want it! (Of course!)
DeleteThanks for sharing, Karrilee!
ReplyDeleteOf course! Thanks for stopping by, Kelly!
DeleteI love this. The book sounds wonderful. I am a Relator.
ReplyDeleteOh of course you are! I love how accurate the assessment is! (And yes - it is a wonderful book!)
DeleteCONGRATS, my friend! You won! xoxo
DeleteI was a thinker first, and an experiencer second. Seems right on and really piqued my curiosity about this book!
ReplyDeleteOh Rose... what a great combo! The book really does expound on the styles and gives great tips on how to increase your happiness and red flags to look for that can drain your happiness as well! Good luck in the giveaway! Thanks so much for stopping by!
DeleteI've heard nothing but amazing things about this book and it sounds right up my alley! I'm all about finding the good/joyous/happy in the everyday. I'm excited to take the quiz!
ReplyDeleteI'm a relater and experiencer :D
DeleteTwinning! (I'm actually Experiencer and then Relater - but like, one point separates the two!) Good luck on the Giveaway... thanks for stopping by!
DeleteI'm a thinker/relater 😊
ReplyDeleteAnd does that seem accurate to you, Becca? I am finding that this Assessment is quite accurate for myself and my people! Thanks so much for stopping by!
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