When I decided to work on these with my kids, I chose to call them “joy journals” because that rolls off the tongue.  These are a little like art journals melded with gratitude journals.

What is a Joy Journal?

The idea I had in mind when we put these together is that they would be books filled with things that bring us joy.  So there’s an element of gratitude journaling to them, but they’re more than that.  The contents of a book like this can be serious — like Scriptures, significant quotes, or lists of things you’re grateful for — but they can also be lighthearted and silly.  You’ll notice mine has silly memes in it.

The next page actually contains a snippet of printed paper that I just like.  The aim is to fill it with things that make you smile.

Not things that “should” make you smile, or that you “should” be grateful for, or anything like that, but things that actually make you smile — no matter how small.  Everyone’s journal will be different, because we all enjoy different things.

My kids made their own, but they’d misplaced them when I was taking pictures for this post.

Be sure to choose a notebook you like, or grab a blank one and decorate it, so the notebook itself will make you smile, too!