Finding joy, despite failure

Hey,
  Sorry I haven't posted in so long. My husband isn't really a fan of blogs, and I have debated posting or just deleting it. I am horrible at writing, spelling, and grammar! So I am going to use this to try to get better and also as a space to encourage other women. Anyway...

  I love being around happy people! I always have and probably always will. I was watching Amazing Race season 17 recently with my girls, and God used my favorites (Nat & Kat, the winners), who based on a comment they made I am assuming are not christians, to convict me. The thing that I liked about them is that they were almost always smiling! I realized that Jesus was probably someone like that! I don't think people would be flocking around him and want to be with him if he was like the pharisees, and was always so focused on every little tiny thing that he was a downer! I think Jesus was an absolute lover of people! I think He found joy in the little things! I am attempting to smile and find joy more, because I want to be like Jesus!

  Within a day of that realization I stumbled across a blog (http://theorangerhino.com/) by a mom who decided to not yell at her kids for one year (and made it a lot longer!). Talk about conviction! I yell at my kids a lot! Most of the time when I yell at my kids it's just to be heard over them, but not always. And that makes me sad! It's hard to type that and realize that people are going to read that. I don't want everyone to know that I yell at my kids! I want to be viewed as a great mom, but I've realized that we tend to hide our failures and shortcomings and publish our successes and that doesn't always help others. I have felt like a failure so often because when I complain ask for advice about my kids people around me tend to tell me how their kids are never that bad or never do anything like that. The most encouraging person I've talked to about my kids told me that all kids struggle with something or another, most parent's try to hide it to make themselves look like better parents, but all kids sin! They sin just like we do! It's all about grace! As parents we should come alongside each other and encourage each other, instead of trying to build ourselves up we should be building each other up. So, I will admit that I yell to at my kids, but I am changing that. Some days I succeed  and other days I don't go an hour all day without failure. But every day, every hour, every minute, I am trying to choose to be gracious, loving, tenderhearted, joyful, and soft spoken towards my kids.

I am off to yell less and smile more :-)

Lizz