Spread Joy Like Peanut Butter and Jelly

by Alycia Morales

Nothing brightens my day more than opening my mailbox to find a letter or card from a friend. It’s always nice to know someone has been thinking of me.

There are so many ways we can find to encourage each other. Here are just a few:

1. Smile at the frowning person. Your simple gesture may be their door to a brighter day.

2. Add an encouraging quote to your e-mail address line. Maybe you’d like to change it out each week. Everyone loves a good quote, or there wouldn’t be so many quote sites and Pinterest boards.

3. Leave a sticky note on someone’s computer at work. Sign it with a smiley face instead of your name.

4. Share a blog post you’ve read by forwarding it to a friend who may be encouraged by its message.

5. Encourage your kids before they tell you about their day at school. Your kind words are sure to lift their spirits.

I had the joy of perusing Marie Wikle’s book, Spreading Joy Daily, in exchange for a review. If you are a person who loves to encourage others, like I am, Marie’s book is a great resource of things you can do. The five recommendations above are ideas I discovered within the pages of Spreading Joy Daily. Some of Marie’s suggestions cost a bit of change. Others are free. But all are sure-fire ways to make someone else’s world a brighter place.

But this I say: He who sows sparingly will also reap sparingly, and he who sows bountifully will also reap bountifully. So let each one give as he purposes in his heart, not grudgingly or of necessity; for God loves a cheerful giver. And God is able to make all grace abound toward you, that you, always having all sufficiency in all things, may have an abundance for every good work (2 Corinthians 9:6-8).

There’s a wonderful truth about giving generously and with a joyful heart. God’s economy works differently from ours. Where we add, He multiplies. As we pour our tithes, our finances, our time, and our love into His kingdom, He multiplies our tithe, our finances, our time, and love. Marie’s book is filled with little ways that we can pour into others. I encourage you to check it out and see how simple it is for you and your family to give. As you do so, I pray that God will bring an abundant harvest into your lives.

Spread joy like peanut butter and jelly. Spread it thick. Let someone’s day be highlighted because your encouragement was sweet and stuck with them throughout the day.

If you’d like to win a free copy of Marie’s book, tell us in the comments below about a way you and your family have spread the joy. We’ll draw a winner on June 30th. Please be sure to check back to see if you won!

For more information on Marie and Spreading Joy Daily, please visit the following:

http://www.spreading-joy.org/site/spreading-joy-daily/

Twitter – http://twitter.com/spreadingJOY
Facebook – http://facebook.com/spreadingjoycorp
Pinterest – http://www.pinterest.com/mariewikle/

Pirate Preacher

The Pirate Preacher is the Communications Director at Christ' Church at Moore Square. On Monday nights he leads a "Jesus Study" in Moore Square. Each Sunday between 12:30 and 2:00 the Pirate Preacher and others, gather in the park to hand out food, water, and other items that add to the abundant life Jesus promised. He's also is an award-winning author of middle-grade, YA, and adult fiction and a writing coach and instructor.

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