today's quote and a little ramble

"Bread and water can so easily be toast and tea."
~Author Unknown

I love this quote because it reminds me...it's not that hard, my job. I think of my role as the Wife and Mom as this exact thing. For what makes dry bread into toast and water into tea? warmth. heat. fire.
And it's all about MY attitude. A warm welcome home, and John can start to forget the long days work. My smile of reassurance helps Sam struggle on through a difficult math lesson. A grin and a joke can quickly end the start of a quarrel between two brothers. This miraculous ability to take the hard (bread and water) and turn it to the delightful (toast and tea) takes only a minute, and costs nothing! Yet it can only be accomplished by setting our minds to it...
Such power to influence should be held with trembling hands and taken seriously by us as women! We set the tone in the home by our love, which is felt and seen by our smiles. Are they real, genuine and frequent? Or forced, tight and rare?
Some days this simple task comes easy to me...my pollyanna tendencies are overflowing and the joy is abundant, spreading over our home like butter on hotcakes. Other times, it's just gone. Poof! Lost, somehow, and I wake up "under a cloud".
But I'm learning something, finally. Just to stop, wherever you are in the day, and hit the re-start button. On the days an extra sacrifice is needed to kindle the fire? Do it. Make the sacrifice of time and effort. It's so worth it, and really-it ALWAYS works. Get alone. Get a Bible and some hot coffee and get it all worked out. Pray and praise, and petition the Giver of all good things, but stay on your knees until you gain that joy back. For what can flow out of an empty vessel?

Do what it takes to be sunshine for your family. They don't care about the clean house, a day full of schoolwork, all the laundry done. Even your delicious, hot meal won't nourish them...
if Mama isn't smiling.