Hello beautiful people, welcome to the first ever post on the honey by joy blog!! This has been a heart project that we have prayed into, dreamed about and worked our butts off for over the past several months! This is a monumental moment for me to be able to share my heart and soul with you through the pages and posts of this website. My dream for Honey (as we all call it) is so much more than just a website, my hope is that this will be a place where people come to be encouraged, challenged and convicted, a place where we can come together as jesus lovers and talk about all the things we are passionate about. 

If you don’t know me, hi! My name is Emily Joy, or em as you’ll come to know me as. I’m the Joy behind Honey by Joy! I want to treat this post as if I am sitting down with a new friend to boba, or maybe a freshly baked cookie, just here to share about myself: my interests and passions, my love for Jesus, my dreams and my vision for what I want Honey to become. 

So let’s start with something simple, a little bit about myself. 

Gosh, I always sucked at those get to know me games in school. I could never think of one sentence that gave a glimpse into who I am, and honestly the same is still true today, I would like to think I’ve improved slightly though… First and foremost, if you couldn’t already tell, my life revolves around Jesus, He is my Saviour and my first love, and I try to honor and reflect Him in everything I do (keyword here is “try,” don’t let me fool you into thinking I do it perfectly, because I definitely don’t). My second true love is my amazing husband and best friend, Alex. We are high school/ youth group sweethearts who, in typical church culture fashion, were married at 19 and 20. Alex is my biggest fan, has been my rock and support through all of the craziness of this creative journey. I have a huge passion for living a JOYFUL life, I feel like the Lord so specifically named me to be a joy and light to those around me, showing others the joy set before them in their walk with Jesus. I also have a heart for abortion, slow fashion, and kenya as a nation. These are big things that burn on my heart and I have a conviction to use my voice, time, finances and effort to have a heavenly impact on them. This list will grow and morph as I do in my journey with the Lord, looking different in each season how I am able to pour into them, but you will definitely be getting some content on all of these things in the future. I honestly just love to talk and share, and the Lord has given me a voice to write all the things that he has spoken to me and taught me, and I am so grateful for that. Just to end off, I want to share a couple of my favorite things in the whole wide world, hopefully these give you a better glimpse of who I am. These include: warm sunshine, long spring and summer days, reading a good book, boba, hanging out with friends and family, sweet potato fries, and a host of creative outlets. I really want to get to know all the people who are reading and following along, so if you want to drop a little snippet about yourself in the comments, I would absolutely love that!! We’re taking it back to the middle school get-to-know-me circle everyone hahaha, buckle up!!

Now let’s talk about my vision for Honey, but first, why is it named “Honey by Joy” ?

The Lord gave me the word honey last fall as a name for a business or brand, I thought at first that it would be the name of a future coffee shop, and being such, I swiftly filed it into the “faraway dreams” category of my brain. But at the beginning of this year the Lord began speaking to me about becoming consistent with my blog and expanding my voice. I heard God speak this over me and this whole new endeavor, He said this would be “heaven honey for a world in need,” and man that just stuck with me. Heaven honey is healing and life giving and comes from the very heart of God. The word honey to me brings about so much joy. The honey that I have to bring to others is the Joy of the Lord, that is what I was created to do, show others the joy that the Lord has woven through my very being, and let it be like honey, sweet and inviting to the world.

Overall, my vision for Honey is to be a gathering place for people to be vulnerable and real and at the same time to get filled. To be a well, in a sense, of that sweet heaven honey. While not all of my blogs will explicitly be about Jesus or the Bible, I want my passion for the Lord and living uprightly to be evident throughout everything that I write. In typical Emily fashion, things will be a bit of a hodgepodge, but my posts will revolve pretty heavily around Jesus and the Bible, as well as lifestyle and slow fashion. 

Why am I starting over? 

The blog I had previously “my little life,” started as a hobby, and it still is, but I want more from my writing now. I feel a responsibility to put my energy and time into what I write, to use what the Lord is teaching me to reach others, and I can’t do that if I only post twice a year. Starting with a clean slate means that I get to make my site however I want it to be: more professional, more user friendly, and have more room to grow and expand. I have loved the small start I’ve had writing my heart out on my other blog site, but I feel like the Lord is calling me to more now, and I want to mirror that same intention into how my site looks and runs.

Okay, I feel like this is a good starting place, good job team hahah! I am so incredibly excited for all the Lord has in store for this new step and I am stoked to get to share the adventure with all of you. Thank YOU all so much for reading and supporting me, I am infinitely grateful! A million hugs and kisses!

much love, 

em