I never sat down one day and decided I was going to create a cozy life. But it was what grew out of the deepest longings of my heart. Somewhere along the way I realized that how I wanted to order my life was best defined as cozy.

I’ve always been drawn to the word cozy because it seems to encompass the best of so many parts of life. I’ve now been on the journey of creating a cozy life for many years.

As I reflected on the choices we’ve made and the results we’ve achieved as a couple and a family, I realized that there are three steps to or phases of creating a cozy life:

• Peace
• Understanding
• Joy

Peace is the foundation that flows into understanding which in turn flows into joy. All three are present in varying degrees during the journey, but I believe they do develop more deeply and fully in that order. Once we develop patterns of action and thought that fully integrate these into our life, they continually feed off each other and support each other.

I’d like to help you understand how to apply this to your own life.

Creating a Cozy Life

In Creating a Cozy Life – Getting Started, you’ll walk through your current life over the next three days and reflect on where you are now. I’m confident there are some things you are already doing well. There are other parts of your life that might be blind spots (since we all have them). There may be parts of your life that are completely drowning you in chaos. Maybe you need a few aha moments to get you on a path that is better for you and your loved ones.

Whatever your situation, my goal is to help you identify where you are, determine where you want to make changes, and start developing a plan for creating a cozy life.

So let’s begin.

What Is a Cozy Life?

A cozy life or cozy living is what I call the coming together of purposeful living, simple living, and faithful living.

• Purposeful Living – We make purposeful choices rather than going with the flow, even if it means being different from the crowd.
• Simple Living – We include only those things in our life that bring real value.
• Faithful Living – We make choices that align with our faith and core beliefs.

So cozy living is living purposefully and simply according to our deeply held beliefs.

When we choose a cozy life, we can bring peace, understanding, and joy to our home.

Reflecting On Peace, Understanding, and Joy

The mini-course below is designed to help you reflect on you current life as you start your journey toward creating a cozy life.

I encourage you to complete all three parts, perhaps over three days so you can take time to think about each one as you do the exercises. Completing the three sheets at the start of your journey will give you a big picture look at where you are right now and where you hope to go. There is also an additional page at the end you can use as needed if your thoughts require more writing space.

After that, I hope you will continue on through the A Quiet Simple Life Series and complete all the portions that apply to your life.

May God bless you as you begin this new journey!

A Quiet Simple Life Series