“Mommy, is Jesus sweet?” I heard the three-year old ask from the backseat as I was driving to school one morning.
“Oh, yes. Jesus is very kind to us,” I replied, wondering where this conversation was going.
“Yeah, Jesus makes our heart happy.”
Happiness. Blessings. Joy.
All of these words are synonymous for what those of us who follow Jesus should exude on a daily basis. And generally I’m pretty good at faking it till I make it when I’m in public. I may not be having the greatest day (or week or month) but I’m always quick to say how great I’m doing when others ask.
Yet at home, the opposite rings true.
I trudge in the door after a stressful day of work with three kids in tow, knowing an empty kitchen awaits my magic. I grumble under my breath as I prepare dinner, thinking ahead to the laundry that is piled high in the laundry room, and bath time that needs to happen tonight because it hasn’t happened in a while. Oops.
I try to temper my tongue when the kids are fighting and arguing but my short fuse sometimes explodes. It’s not the way I want to react.
I recently heard Canadian pastor Carey Nieuwhof say this:
I want the people closest to me to have the best experience of me.
There has never been a truer statement.
I’ve made it a point in the past few weeks to be calmer with my children. To be nicer to my husband. To complain less about the chores that need to be done and the never-ending food that needs to be cooked. (Is that a complaint? Or a fact? I don’t know.)
Anyway, the saying is true – “When mama ain’t happy, ain’t no one happy.”
And so is the opposite.
The temperature of our homes is set by us as moms.
So, with help from the Holy Spirit, I am trying to show my children what it means to be happy, to have the joy of Jesus, even when things aren’t always going their way.
Because I, too, want those closest to me to have the best experience of me.
