Hello June 💜 May joy find you in all the small moments this month.
A cup of coffee, sunshine through the window, laughter, a quiet prayer — joy often whispers instead of shouts.
Sweet friend, I want to start today with a little experiment.
I want you to think back over the last week — and I want you to try to identify the moment when you felt most genuinely, quietly, deeply happy.
Not the most productive moment. Not the most impressive moment. Not the moment you would put on a highlight reel or share as a big announcement. Just the moment when something inside you went still and warm and softly, simply glad to be alive.
Got it?
Now tell me — was it something big? Or was it something small?
I am going to guess it was something small. Something wonderfully, perfectly, easily-overlooked small.
Because in my experience — and I have been paying attention to this for a long time now — that is almost always where joy is actually hiding. Not in the grand gestures and the milestone moments and the answered prayers we have been waiting years for. Those things are beautiful and worth celebrating with everything we have.
But the everyday, ordinary, show-up-whether-you-notice-it-or-not kind of joy? The kind that is available to us not just on our best days but on our most regular, unremarkable, nothing-special Tuesdays?
That joy lives in the small moments. It always has. 💜
The Moments We Rush Past
Here is something I want to be honest about today — because I think most of us do this and nobody really talks about it.
We rush past joy all the time.
Not on purpose. Not because we don’t want it. But because we are moving so fast and carrying so much and focused so intently on the next thing that the small quiet moments of genuine beauty and grace that God has tucked into our everyday lives just slip past us unnoticed.
The coffee gets cold while we are answering emails. The sunrise happens while we are looking at our phones. The child says something hilarious and our mind is already three steps ahead on the to-do list. The song comes on that we love and we skip it because we are in a hurry. The friend says something kind and we deflect it before we even let ourselves feel it.
We are so busy living our lives that we sometimes forget to actually experience them.
And I think this is one of the quietest, most subtle forms of missing out there is. Not missing out on the big things — we tend to show up for those. Missing out on the small ones. The ones that make up the actual texture and fabric and feeling of a life fully lived.
There is a beautiful quote I came across once that stopped me right in my tracks. It said something like — “One day you will realize that the ordinary moments were the extraordinary ones all along.”
I think about that all the time now. Because I believe it is true. I believe that years from now — when we look back on this season of life, this ordinary June, these regular unremarkable days — we are going to realize that they were full of something precious. And I want to make sure I am not so busy getting through them that I forget to actually be in them.
What Joy Actually Is
I want to talk about joy for a moment — really talk about it — because I think we sometimes confuse it with happiness and they are not quite the same thing.
Happiness is a feeling. It comes and goes depending on circumstances. When things are going well, we feel happy. When they are not, the happiness fades. It is real and it is wonderful and there is absolutely nothing wrong with it — but it is dependent on the external world cooperating with us. And the external world, as we all know, does not always cooperate.
Joy is something deeper. Something that lives underneath the feelings and the circumstances and the ever-changing surface of our days. The Bible describes it as a fruit of the Spirit — something that grows in us as we walk with God, something that does not require perfect circumstances to be present, something that can coexist with grief and struggle and uncertainty in a way that happiness cannot.
Joy is what lets you smile through tears. What gives you peace in the middle of the storm. What makes you able to say “this is hard and I am not okay and God is still good” all at the same time.
But here is what I want to say about joy today — and this is the part I really want you to hold onto:
Joy is not just a spiritual concept. It is a daily practice. And the practice happens in the small moments.
It happens when you wrap both hands around your coffee mug and take that first slow sip and decide — consciously, intentionally decide — to be present in that moment. To notice the warmth. To be grateful for it.
It happens when the light comes through your window and instead of not noticing it, you stop. Just for three seconds. And you look at it. And you let it be beautiful.
It happens when someone makes you laugh and instead of swallowing it down and moving on, you let yourself laugh all the way. Out loud. Without apology.
These are not small things, sweet friend. These are the moments where the practice of joy actually lives. 🌸
The Theology of Small Things
I want to spend a little time in Scripture today because I think the Bible has so much more to say about small things and ordinary moments than we sometimes realize.
Think about how Jesus taught. He did not mostly use grand, dramatic, complex illustrations. He used seeds and soil and bread and wine and fishing nets and fig trees and wildflowers and sparrows. The most ordinary, everyday, unremarkable things in the world around Him — and He found the kingdom of God hiding inside all of them.
He said look at the birds. They do not worry, and your Father feeds them. You are worth more than birds.
He said look at the wildflowers. They do not strive or spin, and they are clothed in more glory than Solomon in all his splendor.
He said the kingdom of heaven is like a tiny mustard seed. The smallest of all seeds. And yet it grows into the largest of garden plants.
Over and over and over again Jesus pointed to small things and said — look closer. There is more here than you think. God is in this.
I believe He is still saying that to us today.
Look closer at your ordinary morning. God is in it. Look closer at that simple meal shared with someone you love. God is in it. Look closer at the quiet moment, the small kindness, the unremarkable Tuesday afternoon. God is in it.
“This is the day the Lord has made. Let us rejoice and be glad in it.” — Psalm 118:24
Not a special day. Not a perfect day. Not a day when everything goes right and all your prayers are answered and life feels the way you always hoped it would. This day. The one you are actually in. The ordinary one. The one with the cold coffee and the messy house and the unresolved situation and the small quiet moments of grace tucked into every corner if only you slow down enough to find them.
He made this day. He put you in it on purpose. And He is in every single small moment of it — whether you notice or not. But oh, sweet friend, how much more beautiful life becomes when we do notice. 💜
A Love Letter to the Small Moments
I want to take a moment and just celebrate some of the small moments today. The ones that so often whisper past us without getting the recognition they deserve.
The first cup of coffee in the morning. Not the second one, not the fancy one, not the one at the coffee shop. The first one. The one you make in your own kitchen in your pajamas before the world starts asking things of you. That cup of coffee is a small miracle. The warmth of it. The smell of it. The way it says “this day is beginning and you are in it and that is a good thing.” ☕
Sunshine through the window. It does not matter what season it is or what the rest of the day looks like. That moment when the light comes through at just the right angle and falls across the floor or the table or your hands — that is God showing off a little. That is beauty placed in your ordinary day on purpose. ✨
Laughter. Real laughter. Not the polite chuckle we give when something is mildly funny. The kind that catches you off guard. The kind that makes your eyes water and your stomach hurt and your whole body participate. The kind that reminds you that delight is one of God’s original inventions and He wants you to experience it as often as possible. 😄
A quiet prayer. Not the formal kind necessarily — though those are beautiful too. But the small, spontaneous, whispered-in-the-middle-of-the-day kind. The “thank You for this” prayer when something small and good happens. The “I need You right now” prayer when something is hard. The “good morning, I love You” prayer before your feet even hit the floor. Those small prayers are some of the most intimate, most real conversations you will ever have with God. 🙏
Being known. The moment someone says exactly what you needed to hear without knowing you needed to hear it. The text that arrives at just the right time. The friend who remembers the thing you mentioned in passing three weeks ago and asks about it today. That feeling of being truly seen and known — it is one of the sweetest small joys there is. 💜
The end of a good day. When you climb into bed at the end of a day that was ordinary and unremarkable and mostly unmemorable — and you lie there in the quiet and realize that it was actually pretty good. That there were small moments in it that were genuinely lovely. That you are grateful. That tomorrow is coming and God will be in it too. 🌙
How to Start Finding the Small Moments
Sweet friend, if you feel like you have been rushing past the small joys lately — like life has been moving too fast and the beautiful little things keep slipping by before you can catch them — I want to give you some simple, practical ways to start noticing them again.
Start a joy list. Every evening — or even in the moment when it happens — jot down one small thing that brought you joy today. Not a profound thing. Not an impressive thing. Just a small, real, genuine moment of happiness. A flower you walked past. A smell that made you smile. Something your pet did. A line from a song. Anything. Over time this list becomes one of the most treasured things you own — a record of all the small beautiful things God tucked into your ordinary days.
Slow down your transitions. The moments between activities are where so much joy gets lost. Instead of rushing immediately from one thing to the next, try pausing for thirty seconds in between. Look around. Notice where you are. Take one slow breath. You would be amazed how many small beautiful things appear when you give yourself thirty seconds to look for them.
Say it out loud. When something small brings you joy — say so. Out loud. To God, to yourself, to whoever is nearby. “Oh, this coffee is so good.” “Look at that light.” “I love this song.” Speaking our small joys out loud makes them more real, more felt, more remembered. It is one of the simplest and most effective gratitude practices I know.
Put the phone down. I know. I know. But sweet friend — so much joy is happening in the spaces we fill with scrolling. The conversation that gets interrupted. The sunset that happens while we are looking at our screens. The child who stops asking for attention because they have learned we are too busy to give it. Joy lives in presence. And presence requires putting down the thing that takes us away from it.
Thank God specifically. Not just a general “thank You for this day” prayer — though that is wonderful too. But a specific one. “Thank You for the way that bird sounded this morning. Thank You for the way my friend laughed today. Thank You for the smell of rain. Thank You for this moment right here.” Specific gratitude trains our eyes to see specific beauty. And the more we see it, the more there is to see.
Joy Is Not Gone. It Is Whispering.
Sweet friend, I want to close today with something I really need you to hear — especially if this has been a hard season for you. Especially if joy has felt far away lately. Especially if life has been heavy and the small moments have been hard to find.
Joy has not left you. It has not packed its bags and moved out because things got hard. It has not decided you are too much of a mess to visit. It has not given up on you.
It is whispering.
Quietly, persistently, faithfully — in the coffee and the sunshine and the laughter and the quiet prayers and the hundred other small beautiful things that God keeps placing in your path every single day.
You might have to slow down to hear it. You might have to look a little harder. You might have to choose to notice it on days when noticing feels like an act of sheer determined faith.
But it is there. It is always there. Because the God who made you is the God of all joy — and He never stops hiding little pieces of it in the most ordinary, unexpected, wonderfully small places of your everyday life.
Keep looking, sweet friend. It is right there waiting for you to find it. 🌸
With so much love, Marilyn Finding Life’s Magic
Come find our little community of joy-seekers and faith-fillers on Instagram at @findinglifesmagic and visit us every single day for fresh encouragement at findinglifesmagic.net — because you deserve a place that helps you find the magic in the everyday. And if you are looking for a little something to remind you to slow down and smile, come browse our shop at etsy.com/shop/findinglifesmagic 🌸✨