The word lanyap is the phonetic spelling of the cajun word lagniappe. This was a new word to me when I met my husband, Lee. I had never heard of this word before, and when he first said it with his southern drawl, I didn’t even understand him. I finally made him spell it out, but that didn’t help since I’d never heard it before. I found out it means “something extra” and is used to mean a gift given a customer by a merchant, like when a restaurant includes a free pastry with your meal. After we married, I slowly began to use the word myself, especially when it had been incorporated into our everyday life, including a lagniappe category in our monthly budget. As I embraced the word, I dropped the original spelling for the phonetic way of spelling it. This shortened version of lanyap was much easier! 

That covers what lanyap is, but what about the lanyap life? Simply put, it is a way of living.I did not make the connection of lanyap as a lifestyle until one day, when I was pondering how to describe the way I live my life, I had an epiphany! Lanyap is more than the extra envelope in our budget, or a gift a merchant may give their customer, it is the standpoint from which I live my life. Since my encounter with Jesus, every lack and trauma I’ve experienced in life has been transformed to such a degree I’m now living from a place of 100% accepted instead of varying degrees that depend on how I’m being treated. Living 100% loved, 100% forgiven and 100% valued is a game-changer.

  If I told you I yield my life to God and choose to interact with Him on a daily basis, it may conjure up images of people you know who live by rules they are strict in following. This may be an unpleasant thought, if they’ve also tried to get you to follow the same rules. This is not my life. I am free from rules of any kind. The only reason I do or do not do things in life, is because of my own preference, or because The One, who accepts me 100%, lovingly tells me I should or shouldn’t do something. Later, or immediately at times, I discover the wisdom in the “no” and am grateful, or understand the why of the “yes” after I follow it. A strong trust has developed since I’ve been living this way, because I’ve discovered every single time it ends up being for my good. I don’t always experience it immediately, but all His goodness eventually tracks me down and finds me. This makes for an adventurous life; a life of living freestyle!

If you are alive and breathing, then the aspect of living is already underway. But are you experiencing the extra? If your life were a book, what story would it tell? Have you found the 100% that fills you up and that Extra that overflows? The Author of Life values you, and has so much for you to experience. You’re invited to realize your dream of living 100% free and loved.

Welcome to The Lanyap Life Culture!

If you have things keeping you from living The Lanyap Life, consider taking a journey through our booklet series, Journey to Wholeness. Check it out over on our Books page.

Blessings, Tami Gaupp