Hey there!  My name is Joy Harris, and I’m the author of What Matters Most.  Thank you for visiting my blog!

I’m in my mid-forties and have called Florida home for most of my life. I now live in Georgia with my husband and teenage stepson. 

I have been a Christian for 25 years.  For most of that time, life unfolded in a pattern of work, church, traveling, and hobbies.  I fiercely desired marriage and children, and I believed without a doubt that it would happen for me when the time was right.  So, I continued in faith even as things stayed the same.  But then, in 2012, everything changed.  In the span of just over a year, my dad died, I got married, became a stepmom, moved, started a new job in a new city, and was diagnosed with thyroid cancer.  It was… a lot.  All at once.  Later came a miscarriage and infertility – two words I never thought would be in my bio. You can read more of my story here.

This was certainly a lot to process, and one of the main ways I did so was by writing. Written words are how I best express myself, how I connect the dots in my life, and one of the ways I relate to God. Page after page in journal after journal records my tears, my questions, my sense of overwhelm, my unfulfilled desire. They also record prayers of praise and love to God, Bible verses that I want to internalize, and the lessons He leads me to learn.  They’re a detailed record of one woman’s pursuit of God through all the ups and downs of life and a record of His constant faithfulness to her. 

And those journal entries are some of what I share on this blog in the hope that they help others, too, that the encouragement I receive from God would encourage others, that hope would be multiplied.

But as much as I love reading and writing, the words I love to read the most are the timeless words that speak to my soul, the words God breathed into the Bible, words that are “spirit and life.” (John 6:63) More than any word I could ever write, God’s Word is powerful and active (Hebrews 4:12). 

Encouragement.  Hope.  Perspective.  That is my prayer for this blog, that as we dive into God’s Word together, we will receive encouragement, we will be filled with hope, and we will be reminded of what matters most. 

Happy reading!

Love,

Joy