Joy on Demand Practice

1. Think of a memory in your life for which you are grateful. 
   • It can be big (birth of a child) or small (a beautiful sunset). 
   • It can be related to your ministry, or personal life. 
   • It doesn’t matter, as long as you feel gratitude when you think about it.
   
   

2. In a quiet place, go back into this memory and relive it for a minute, like you are back in it.
   
   Ask:
   • What did you feel in your body? 

   • What might God be communicating to you through the memory and the peace you feel?
   
   

3. Draw a picture of you and God in this memory.
   
   Pick up a pencil and write at the top of a sheet of paper, “God and me”.  Remaining quiet and relaxed, draw a picture of the two of you---choosing images (persons, animals, or objects) to represent God and me in this memory. Do not stop to think about how God should be portrayed or how you want yourself to be portrayed. Just draw.
   
   After you are finished, sit in stillness.

4. After a while, spend some time discussing what you have drawn with God.  
   
   Why have you chosen that color for God?  
   What is the image you have chosen for God and why? 
   What image have you chosen for yourself and why? 
   In the picture, where are you in relation to God and why?
   Is there anything else in the picture?
   Why did you include it?   
   
   

5. After telling God all about your picture, spend a little time in the stillness of prayer.  

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Phase 2 (for later) :  Gratitude for 5 Minutes

1. Start compiling a list of grateful memories. Each memory has 2 characteristics: 
   • You feel gratitude in your body

   • You feel a connection with God in your memory
   
   

2. Eventually, you will want a list of 10 grateful memories. Give each a 2 or 3 word title. Ex) “Waffle House”

   
   Once/day spend 5 minutes residing in gratitude using your list of grateful memories, mostly nonverbal. You are feeling a connection with God in your body as you relive memories of gratitude, the doorway of greater joy. We can bring our hearts, minds and bodies back to Joy…even in the most challenging circumstances of our day, when we remember and re-live experiences of JOY!

— Inspiration from Dr. Curt Thompson