FORGOT YOUR DETAILS?


We Must Choose Joy

/ / Articles, Blog
choose to be joyful

 

“You look mad. All the time. I know you’re not, but you look like you are.”

“You’re pretty when you smile, Mama; smile more!”

“Look—my face is mad—like Mama’s.”

Am I really an angry person?

I tend to think of myself as serious, deep and thoughtful. . . .

I mean, I homeschool four kids who are 2, 6, 8, and 12. And we do it all in a way that requires a lot of work from this Mama. Because we strive to live and learn—cultivating a love of learning lifestyle—so I am always trying to help my kids find new resources and tools to help them explore their interests as they arise.

I am not angry. I am just busy—determined (and angry). There I said it.

I get angry because for the 3rd day in a row my husband leaves the book I have been asking him to read on the table.

I get angry when my oldest son hears it’s time to do some math or handwriting or reading, and he grumbles and complains—every day!

I get angry when my younger son hits his little sister because she is being annoying or so he says.

I get angry when I mess up. I yell or lose control for a moment. I forget that my kids are just that. Kids. They are still learning.

I forget that my husband is a hardworking man, long and busy days away from home. So he forgets to take the book—so there are many unfinished and not yet started projects about our home—he does the best he can.

We have to choose to find joy. In every moment.

We have to choose it.

Can I say I sometimes wish I didn’t have to choose it? That God would just make me be joyful without me having to choose it and do it for myself.

I admit it. I am a recovering perfectionist. I am in a state of concern for what must be done next. And that said, I guess I am continually irritated and angry and worried about something. It just took my kids saying something to make me really look and see it for myself.

We cannot let what others do or don’t do affect us as mamas or as wives. We cannot allow ourselves to live in a state of constant anger because of what others know or don’t know.

I read this, this morning: “The world is going to scrutinize not what we say we believe but the outworking of what we believe in our lives.”

I can be full of joy on the inside while looking angry and irritable on the outside.

I think of how we are told in the scriptures, “Thou blind Pharisee, cleanse first that which is within the cup and platter, that the outside of them may be clean also.”

None of us want to be a Pharisee . . . We all want to have a home that is a joy-filled, encouraging, and inspiring place to be—for our families and for those we welcome in. As homeschool mamas, too, don’t we want to have a place that is full of opportunities to learn and grow and share? Together?

It is good for us to be focused on preparing them for a life of their own. It is good for us to desire and work with our hands at home, to have a clean and organized house, but are we sacrificing joy in the process?

Let us make it our goal, Mama, to seek out those beautiful things ~ see the flowers and not the weeds ~ Can we choose to be joyful?

“The LORD is my strength and my shield; my heart trusted in Him, and I am helped: therefore my heart greatly rejoiceth; and with my song will I praise Him.” Psalm 28:7

 

My name is Jennifer and I am so glad you’ve come by. I am a child of the King, a work in progress seeking to share and show His love and light in all that I do. I am a homeschool mother of four wonderful, sweet and very busy children. It’s busy in our home – its loud – kind of messy – and very crazy. But we live and love all we can! I am a wife – learning so very much — as I grow and pray with my wonderful husband. Learning the joys of submission, and being the help meet I was designed to be. Striving to live a life as a meek and gentle spirit. And seeking only to share the hope within me, with everyone who seeks an answer. All that I do, could not be, without my Lord and Savior. Peace Be with You all – In Jesus Name!

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

"Train up a child in the way he should go and when he is old, he will not depart from it" (Proverbs 22:6).
TOP