All Posts By

Anna Joy

  • Anna Joy in front of the white building

    HOW I FOUGHT TO FIND MYSELF BEAUTIFUL

    I was still a child the first time I thought I was ugly. My friend and I were in the church bathroom, standing in front of the mirror, shirts lifted up, comparing our bellybuttons…

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    SONGS FOR THE STORM

    It all started when… Last spring, my sweet hubby surprised me with a gift from some of my family and friends in the form of money to begin working on a new music project.…

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    FEATHERS [OR] AN EXERCISE IN FAITH

    Two nights ago, we were having dinner with some new friends.  After dinner, their just-turned-one-year-old baby boy kept reaching out toward the center of the dining room table, like he wanted something.  There was…

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    HOW IT FEELS TO SAY GOODBYE, PART 5 – THE NEXT

    Imagine someone in your family is traveling abroad, and a terribly destructive, record-breaking earthquake happens in the city they’re visiting. You wait for some time until finally you get the phone call saying your…

  • HOW IT FEELS TO SAY GOODBYE, THE 5-PART SERIES

    The “How It Feels to Say Goodbye” blogs were originally posts I wrote and then published on my personal Facebook page.  Some people have told me they might be helpful to other people going through…

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    Introducing…Ear Climbers!

    If you follow me on Facebook or Instagram, you’ve seen that I’ve got some nifty new items coming to the shop.  Ear Climbers! They’re a really fun, simple way to add extra oomph to…

  • Deer photo by Kristian

    What’s With The Deer?

    My dad is an introvert, and he is the loveliest kind of introvert there is.  He is not an insecure introvert or an off-in-another-world introvert or an I-can’t-stand-people-everybody-get-away-from-me introvert.  He is a fully present,…

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    Love Day Earrings

    Valentine’s Day will be upon us soon, people.  I know many of you shudder at the red and pink commercialism of the whole thing.  Or you place a hand over your broken heart, hold…

  • by Brian Wolfe(y)

    Tension

    God is spirit and those who worship Him must worship in spirit and truth. {John 4:24, ESV}   When I was in college, I took a sculpture class, and for my final assignment I…

  • Shop Archive

    These lovely things have already been purchased and they now live in jewelry boxes and homes instead of here in my studio. But they’re still fun to look at! If you own one of these,…

  • photo by Kristian Lynae Irey

    When I Married God

    Have you ever watched one of those horrible hunting scenes where a deer is standing in a field of brown grass, someone shoots it, it goes down, and then it gets up and keeps…

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    The Song that Erases Anxiety

    Of all the emotions that can pass through the human brain on a given day, I’m pretty convinced that anxiety is the most difficult to deal with.  Several years ago, I went through some…

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    Weekend Worship Lyrics

    You guys.  You’re gonna love this.  {I hope.} If you are a Jesus person or a church person, it’s probably not news to you that worship is hard.  Sure, if you’re climbing on a…

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    Just As Real

    Have you ever noticed that sometimes when you are listening to a really, really horrible story, your brain kind of glazes over and you literally can not process the thing you are hearing?  It…

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    Making Sure We’re Not Alone

    {Photo by my awesomely talented friend, Brian Wolfe.} I remember some years ago sitting in a college class — Writing Fiction and Poetry.  Our textbook for the year was a book written by Anne…

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    One Year

    One year ago today, I woke up in the morning and had breakfast for the first time with a little boy who now calls me “Momma”.  I don’t remember what we talked about or…

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    Baby Jace

    Update: Baby Jace is gone.  Let’s turn our hearts to his family now.  To his parents, Jon and Lindy, and to all who love them. I really need you to pray.  For real. This…

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    My husband wrote a book…

    This is my husband. Oh.  I know. I love him. Very much.   He wrote a book.  Here are my thoughts. When you hear the word “church”, what do you see? Is it the…

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    A Primer on Human Trafficking

    “Child prostitution, Rita explained, was simply a way of life in Medina… ‘Everyone’s happy when a baby girl is born…because in around a decade, they’ll have a valuable source of income.’” When I first…