Nuggets of Wisdom

Continuing to work toward more joy and less grump, I've come across quite a few nuggets of wisdom to aid in my endeavors.

One simple idea - gleaned from a blog I just read yesterday (unfortunately I can already not recall WHICH blog) - was to change your thought patterns.  Seems easy enough and something we've probably all heard before, but her manner of explaining it was novel to me.

As a mom, there are tasks I complete each day only to have that task 'undone' almost immediately.  Admittedly, these are situations in which 'Mrs. Grumpy Pants' often emerges in our home.

The author's suggestions dealt with this very scenario.

How often do we complete a project with a thought that goes something like this:  "The kitchen is clean.  Everyone BETTER stay out of it so it STAYS that way AT LEAST until the next meal."  I know I'm guilty of such thought patterns.  Instead, this writer suggested our thoughts should be more along the lines of, "The kitchen is clean.  Now it's ready to be used again."

That way, when one of the kidlets comes in and gets cracker crumbs on the table and leaves their water cup on the island AGAIN or Techno brings his lunch plate in and deposits it beside the clean sink, it doesn't bother me.  I can smile because the kitchen is being used for it's intended purpose and my thoughts and heart are in line WITH that purpose.

On the heals of reading that blog, I had a message from my good friend Jaimie this morning. In her message she mentioned dealing with situations by thinking in terms of 'I choose not to' instead of 'I can't'.

This too made me think of the previous days post I had read.  It's so similar. It's. All.  In.  How.  We.  THINK!

When our thinking is right, our actions and attitudes tend to follow.

This is a new approach for me.  I tend to be of the pessimistic persuasion.  Viewing situations in an all or nothing fashion.  This new manner of pondering - PLANNING for messes and being ok with them; accepting that some things are my 'choice' and not out of my control; both are outside my norm, my comfort zone.

They also lean toward the concept of being a servant.  (Another area in which I could use some improvement - but that'll be another post, for another time.)

I have found this journey to be thrilling -- both exciting and terrifying.

I'm growing.

Hopefully I'm changing.

God is working good things in and through me.

How's your thought process these days?   Sometimes a simple change in how we think about a situation can save us and our family from enduring 'the wrath of mom!'