Why Aren't You Smiling?

Olivia and I both share a common dislike in school - flashcards. I have tried so hard to be positive about those math drills which are so exceedingly necessary and so very annoying!!! We have tried games, we do different tricks here and there, and we are so very excited that multiplication is automatically more exciting. Olivia got a multiplication tables toy for Christmas from Grandma and PopPop. We also have School House Rock which has songs for each of the multiplication tables. Yay!

Meanwhile, we still have to do addition and subtraction flashcards. I've noticed that when I am positive, Olivia does better. When I'm ho-hum, she slows down and gets frustrated. The other day she looked at me and asked, "Mommy, why aren't you smiling?" It makes a difference to her. If I'm smiling, it passes so much easier. If I can find the balance between making her laugh and making her silly (which lengthens the amount of time it takes to get through the stack!), we have a good day.

It just made me think about how our attitude about life affects other people's perception of our walk with Christ. If following Jesus is a chore we have to plod through - a constant toiling that cannot be joyful until we reach heaven - then we're not going to attract anyone else to the Way of Christ. Besides that, this life is going to seem awfully long and it's going to be awfully hard to follow the command to "rejoice in the Lord always."

There are going to be lots of things that we go through that make us want to cry, be irritable, and complain. If we give in to those attitudes, the things that "make" us express those attitudes will seem to multiply. It's not so much that there are truly more things to cry about - it's just that we find them more because it's easier to give in and cry than to straighten up and rejoice. But, we all know at least one person who can find something to complain about in the happiest of occasions. And, we all know at least one person who can find something to rejoice about even in the darkest of circumstances. Which one do you like to be around more? Which one draws the world in more? Which one makes a lost person look up and say, "I want to be like that!"? I'll give you three guesses...and the first two don't count!

Will you strive with me to make sure that the world sees us rejoicing in all things? Instead of being like Olivia and asking, "Mommy, why aren't you smiling?" may the world look at us and say, "How in the world can you smile like through it all?"