GREYHAIRLADYSPEAKSOUT

A love-soaked lesson in laughing, glowing, and letting God lead

When Your Cheeks Are Working Overtime

Today, as I sit down to write, I can’t stop thinking about the difference between contagious joy and courageous joy. One makes people smile back at you. The other makes people look at you like, “Ma’am… are you okay? Do you need water?”

Lately, I’ve been walking around with a smile so permanent my cheeks are getting a workout they did not sign up for. Honestly, these laugh lines? They’re self-imposed. I earned them the fun way, not the aging way.

And my heart? It’s doing its own joyful Texas Two-step, while humming a little praise song. I swear God looked at my life, checked my emotional endurance, and said, “Give this woman some joy before she files a petition.”

Glowing Like a Tree Topper

People keep telling me I’m glowing, sparkling, shining, basically describing me like the star you stick on top of a Christmas tree this time of year.

But what I’m feeling isn’t just happiness. This is joy with roots. Joy that grew in the soil of my prayers. Joy that came wrapped from heaven with a tag reading, “For her, no expiration date on this stuff.”

This joy doesn’t diminish the love or lessons from my past. I honor them all. But this is a brand-new love for a brand-new season. And it is-truly-FUN. Ridiculous, beautiful, smile-until-your-face-hurts fun.

When People Don’t Know What to Do with Your Joy

Not everyone knows how to interpret this new version of me.
Some walk carefully around me like I’m a live-wire confetti cannon.
Others study me like they’re auditioning for CSI: Marie’s Joy Division.

To them I want to say:
Be courageous. Step into this joy with me.
Trust my heart. Trust my behavior. Trust what God is doing.

You can question it. You can dissect it. You can throw obstacles at it.
But this joy isn’t going anywhere.

It’s only getting louder, brighter, stronger, and more obvious.

So, settle in.
Get your popcorn.
And just watch.

No Longer Shrinking, Finally Showing Up

Looking back, through the good, the broken, the redeemed, and the “Lord, You meant all of that?” moments, I see how often I lived courageously but also quite cautiously.

But somewhere in these last couple of years, a shift happened.

I reached a point where I decided:
I am no longer shrinking up. I am no longer going to carry sadness like an old, heavy suitcase.

Life isn’t so hard anymore, not because life changed, but because I did.

I’m done minimizing myself.
I’m done bracing for impact.
I’m showing up, fully and boldly.
And I’m enjoying every single minute God gives me.

Choosing Joy, And Being Found by It

During the pain associated with the last couple of years, I made a stubborn, holy decision:
I chose joy.

I chose to look for it, lean toward it, and expect God to meet me in it.

And then something beautiful happened.
Joy stopped being something I searched for.
It started finding me.

It began showing up unannounced, steady, sure, and heart-holding, saying, “Relax… breathe, I’ve got this.”

These last few months especially have been overflowing with contagious joy, courageous joy, belly-laugh-out-loud-in-the-car joy.

The kind of joy that makes you talk to God at red lights, smile at strangers in the produce aisle, and giggle at nothing like you’ve lost your mind in the holiest possible way.

A God Who Sorts My Thoughts (All of Them)

And speaking of God, He is everywhere in this season.

He’s in my waking thoughts, waiting thoughts, whispering thoughts, wandering thoughts, wanting thoughts, wayward thoughts, and wishful thoughts.

I hand them over and say, “Lord, please sort this out because I cannot.”

And He does. Every single time.

I see His fingerprints in the love newly placed in my life, this steady, joyful, God-woven love that feels like He saved one of His best gifts for now.

And in it… I feel a promise.
A forever kind of promise.

Scripture That Holds This Joy

“The joy of the Lord is my strength.” Nehemiah 8:10
Strength I didn’t know joy could give.

“Delight yourself in the Lord, and He will give you the desires of your heart.” Psalm 37:4
Desires, not just survival.

“Every good and perfect gift is from above.”  James 1:17
And sometimes those gifts arrive wrapped in laughter, healing, and a smile you can’t seem to put away.

The Joy You Can Feel Across the Room

So here I am, smiling, laughing, glowing, grinning, collecting laugh lines like little trophies of God’s goodness.

I am grateful. I am excited. I am blessed.
And I am living in a joy you can feel from across the room.

Author’s Note

There’s a freedom that rises the moment you stop shrinking and start stepping fully into the person God has shaped you to be. If you’re in a season of stretching or searching, hold on, joy has a way of finding us right when our hearts are finally ready. May God meet you with tenderness this week and may joy sneak up on you when you least expect it.

With love and faith,

Marie