Alia Joy
About the Author

Alia Joy is an author who believes the darkness is illuminated when we grasp each other's hand and walk into the night together. She writes poignantly about her life with bipolar disorder as well as grief, faith, marriage, poverty, race, embodiment, and keeping fluent in the language of hope in...

(in)side DaySpring: things we love
& you will too!
Find more at DaySpring.com
(in)side DaySpring:
things we love
& you will too!
Find more at
DaySpring.com
Recent Posts

Reader Interactions

Comments

  1. Alia Joy,
    “Our identity was written before time, but most of us have yet to fully claim it.” How blessed your children are to have you to weave stories for them and encourage their imaginations!! That is a true gift and blessing! Thank you for the beautiful reminder which encourages me that I am never too old to tap into my God-given, childlike ability to dream. I can dream while I’m awake and just like the dream I used to have as a child (that I could fly), I can truly soar like an eagle. Wonderful and wonder-filled!
    Blessings,
    Bev

    • Thanks Bev! Yes, just like a child. It’s such a gift to see God’s love and care for each of us in the creative imaginings of a child and such a blessing to return to them when we get older and wiser. There’s a simplicity to it and even though we complicate faith so much, really it’s sitting in our Father’s lap and letting Him tell His story.

  2. I’m single, no children but loads of nieces and nephews and greats. I was enthralled. You write beautifully. And I love to tell The Story. Thank you for beginning my morning so richly.

    • So you totally know because with all those nieces and nephews, you’re bound to be exposed to dreamers and creators. I love how kids remind us of the story of God. How simply we can come to Him, how simply we can dream.

  3. I so love your words and your telling of stories!! I love this: “And somewhere along the line, the stories we told ourselves were less about redemption and more about obstacles. Less about sovereignty and more about survival.” Striking chords in me as I wonder if my injuries are taking me swiftly to the end. Sometimes I wish for the swift end! Recovery is painful, hard and long. After a year, I am halfway there… A lot of pain from premorbid conditions as well..

    • It’s so hard to see and believe when we’re hurting. It’s so hard to imagine life as anything other than brutal and cruel when our bodies fail, but we’re given a magnificent hope and I know I’ve seen it time and again during the long pain, that there is a bigger story being told. That there are a thousand tiny moments of grace and wonder woven into the agony, if we have eyes to see. Praying for you this morning, Nancy. For solace in the recovery, for dreams to live even when it hurts and for a great hope to carry you when you’re too weak.

  4. Beautiful. It’s so true that we are all born storytellers and story-believers. Even just last night: our family sat in the living room by candlelight and told made-up stories – and even our little three-year-old chimed in and told his own ridiculous stories as well! Limitless dreaming. Always ready to have fun.

    • Right? They’re not held back the way we are, worrying if we’re telling it right. Worrying it’s not going to end right. They just dream wide open. It’s a gift to watch them become.

  5. Your description of your mama time with your kids made me think of mine. They love to climb on our bed and cuddle with me. I love those moments. I love that you tell your kids stories, and that they are both learning them and making their own. Isn’t that how Jesus wants us to be? To know HIs stories and to live them out in the ways He designed us to? Such a wonderful post today, Alia Joy!

  6. How did we get past childhood into fatigue. My mother said I lived in my imagination. That’s because it’s a good place. Good always overcomes evil, doesn’t it? We are God’s children and we need to have His imagination.

    • Yes! A holy imagination is something I think we lose as we get older if we’re not careful. We’re considered dreamers and unrealistic and there’s a certain measure of cynicism and reality we’re supposed to have so we’re not foolish. But I think we need to return to the ‘foolishness’ of spiritual things. To believe again.

  7. I love the way you weave words together in a way that paints a picture so vividly, I feel as though I’m sitting across the room from you and your children. Thank you for this particular journal article. I am leading a women’s conference soon called “Dream Big” and it’s all about this subject. Ultimately, “all things are possible with God!” We need to allow Him to bring healing and renewal to our hearts so that we can live in child-like faith, following after Him and joining Him on His mission for all the world.

    • I love that your conference subject is on dreaming big. I’ve always been sort of an idealistic pragmatist but I’m learning to live into the story being told. Child like faith without having it all figured out. It’s rocking my world. 😉

    • It’s that so often, isn’t it? Not believing until the end because so much of this life doesn’t just resolve with happily ever afters and a fade out to a golden sunset. I think so much of our faith walk is admitting we often have a great and mighty doubt, naming it, and asking God to retell us the truth. To cast light on the monsters in the closet.