Find Your Joy! If you belong to one of the homeschool support groups I belong to, you’ll have heard me singing this songer at some point! I first shared this song with you here in June, 2006. It's a good melody to remember.

When you belong to a support group, you will find that they depend on the members to step up to the plate and help things work. You will find you have to do something. Now, you'll most likely have plenty of choices. Field Trip Coordinator; Teach a class for the co-op; Baby-sit the children of the teachers & those who have younger children during co-op classes; Phone Tree; Organizer of some party, get-together, or whatnot; Newsletter Editor; Board member; or….the list can be endless. Now you can choose something for yourself, or you can be roped into—umm, enthusiastically recruited into doing something you’d rather not do. Look at their list, won’t it be more pleasant to do something you’d rather do?

Here’s where my song comes into play!

Find your joy!

What floats your boat? What brings you joy? Or conversely, when it’s a hard list to choose from, what brings you down, is a chore, or something that sucks the life out of you? Scratch those off your list…whittle the list down…. Look for your joy.

For myself, I don’t “do” phone calls well at all. I hate doing “cold calling” where I don’t necessarily know the person on the other end or when they are not expecting my phone call. (And hate is a strong word. I try not to use it much, but phone calling is in that category for me.) I don’t really have time for committee meetings. And I’m not fond of teaching a class. One of the reasons that I have always volunteered in the church nursery with the bed babies and have not been a Sunday School Teacher. My present volunteer position is just right for me. I walk the preschool hallway, helping the teachers in their room with things they might need, taking children to the restroom, and being a hostess welcoming parents and visitors as they bring or pick up their children.

You know what really floats my boat, though? Newsletters! Putting them together. Taking the diverse pieces of information and placing them in the “just right” spot in the newsletter. In some ways it’s like putting a jigsaw puzzle together, so the newsletter looks right and flows well.

So of the three groups I currently belong to—what do you think I do? I’m the newsletter editor for each one! Two are homeschooling support groups and one is the dog obedience club in which I belong. One of the homeschooling groups has no June or July newsletter, so that's two months that gives me a break.  The other two groups go year-round. That’s always been no problem for me! It’s because I have found my joy in serving the groups I belong. It’s neither a chore or a hassle. That’s what I hope you can find the same feeling when you need to volunteer in whatever organization you belong….

Find Your Joy!