The Smiling Family Project

Today's QTiS (Quiet-Time in Shower) revelations:

1) Recording the smiling journey on this blog. Because joy is a thing that must infect the whole family. And I have failed so many times in the past at transmitting infectious joy... hang on, I think I have NEVER done this. My personality is in the natural more skeptical/ cynical. It is time to bring my children something concrete that we can all work on together. And that means letting go of some of that old identity (witty sarcasm) and putting on new things. The fruit of the spirit is love and joy. Oh I have love! I love Jesus, I love my family. But how is that translating to my little children when I mope around, shout, or complain? It must translate in JOY and all of the rest of the fruits of the spirit. (We will to go into all of these in-depth on later posts.) What if I don't wait for the feeling of joy to come? What if I start acting it out at every opportunity? Just yesterday I was asking the Lord for creative ideas, and for more of a joy breakthrough, and today He gives me this. So these are the pages where we will record this experiment. And invite others to join the smiling journey as well.

2) Simplicity. There are soooooo many things pressing in on us all the time. But instead of feeling guilty and overwhelmed about everything, ...I need to pare down. I need to focus on the simple things. No, I can't quit my obligations, but simplicity means no more feeling guilty that I have not yet dug up my ground for the organic garden, after 2 1/2 months of living here (and now it is midsummer and a lil too late for that anyway),or that the beautiful porch is a crazy mix of husband's tools, sticky, dried-up bubble dishes and broken kites, and latent garden supplies, oh and SHOES. No more guilt that though being a native German speaker, I have not managed to transfer this ability to any of my children, despite lofty intentions. No more feeling frantic that I am going to miss the deadlines for summer gymnastics and VBS, and guilty that my children have not yet had any sort of pet, oh yeah, and it is 11:15 and I have not started home school yet for the day; who cares if they don't get to take gymnastics classes THIS summer? At least they will have a smiling mother. Just smile. And breathe. It's OK to stay home. Just smile. And everything else will also fall into line, and also come more more Spirit-breathed, and simpler, einfacher. (See, I'm speaking German again already!) Take this journey in faith with me?