Joyell Nevins | The Grit and Grace Project

Unexpected Situations Come with Blessings, You Just Need to Look!

There are few guarantees in life. It is not guaranteed that life will be simple, or easy, or go according to plan. In fact, it’s usually the opposite of that. But, I have found that with God, we can learn to embrace unexpected situations—they can become an adventure and a joy. You just gotta laugh and roll with it! I had that choice to laugh and roll or scream and cry when a special lunch turned into something else. I had two tutoring jobs in the same part of town, with a small lunch break in between. The plan was to meet a lovely friend for lunch. We hadn’t spent time together in a while, so it was going to be a […]

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How to Have a Good Time on a Saturday Night

By Joyell Nevins / Life & Culture

“…forgetting how to have a good time on Saturday night is as lethal as smoking crack. It just takes a little longer to kill you.” Pearl Cleage, “I Wish I Had a Red Dress” In my teens, a hoppin’ Saturday night was an excuse to stay up as late as I wanted and consume massive amounts of television. In my 20s, it meant getting dolled up and going somewhere my friends and I could drink and dance. In my early 30s, it still meant getting dressed up, but we would forego the drinking and dancing, and instead treat ourselves to exquisite meals out. Now, in my late 30s, I still like to dress up, I still like to dance, I still like

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Now Is Not the Time to Quit Your Daydream

By Joyell Nevins / Purpose

The man in blue caught my eye: a friendly cop plastered on a billboard, encouraging would-be policemen to train and apply for the sheriff’s office. “Perfect!” I thought, planning to tell my sister Kara. Kara had always dreamed of becoming a woman in an investigative unit. She had her heart set on the Federal Bureau of Investigations (FBI), but surely local police was a great way to start. And then I remembered—Kara passed away in a drowning accident just a month before. She was 33 years old. There is a plethora of awful things surrounding Kara’s death, including her darling 3-year-old who won’t get to have her mom in her life. But what hit me that day was the travesty of lost

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Non-Creepy Ways to Get to Know Your Neighbor

Easy Ways to Get to Know Your Neighbor

By Joyell Nevins / Relationships

One of the great commandments is “love your neighbor as yourself” (Mark 12:31). That works a lot better when you actually know who your neighbors are. Even though Jesus was talking about people beyond your physical next-door neighbor, next door is still a good place to start. But long gone are the days when it was common to bake a plate of cookies and show up on someone’s doorstep to welcome them to the neighborhood or apartment building. Although sweet treats can be a great inroad (I still make something yummy for my students’ last day!), what if your baking skills ended at the Easy-Bake Oven? Or you’d rather not risk that possibly awkward scene at the front door where you shove

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This Is Why I Broke up With Facebook

By Joyell Nevins / Life & Culture

It started out so sweet. He promised connections with the young people I was working with, updates of friends who lived far away, and plenty of entertainment. He introduced me to a new realm of the online world (MySpace and I never really dated). It was fun, and he delivered on his promises. Or so I thought. Facebook, it turns out, was not the best boyfriend. Those promises came with a high cost of entry. Instead of pouring into my life, he became a massive vacuum, sucking my attention and wasting my time. Those youths I was working with grew older and moved on to whatever the “new” medium happened to be. The people who lived far away actually talked to or

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3 Things That the Movies Got Wrong About Love

By Joyell Nevins / Life & Culture, Relationships

Ice cream, popcorn, wine or tea (depending on your preference), and your favorite romantic lead: the perfect recipe for entertainment. I personally was a sucker for Leo and still am for Hugh Grant and Jude Law—that British accent gets me every time. Whether you’re with your best girlfriend or it’s just you and the boob tube, a chick flick night is a favorite event of the feminine side of our culture (it permeates the male side too; they’re just less quick to admit it). But what I have discovered it is not, is a recipe for real life. Some of our favorite scenes and classic lines are actually the opposite of the truth. When we search for love or model our relationships after what

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