The One About Negativity Eating Away My Thoughts

Negativity. I've noticed lately that when I'm around a lot of negativity, it seems to strongly affect me. I'm a strong believer in not allowing other people to affect your moods. I teach this to my kids from when they are a young age. I tell them that just because 'x' is acting that way, doesn't mean you can. I encourage them not to let other people's moods affect their own moods. When I take a deep looking at myself, I see that I do the same exact thing that my children do. I allow the negativity in & start to think poorly about myself or others around me.

I've been a part of a message board for about 7 years & over those years there has been a lot of negativity towards husbands. It disappoints me to read about Christian women who are so negative and lacking in grace towards their husbands. It got me to thinking today. "My husband never does laundry. My husband rarely does dishes and picks up after himself." Instead of focusing on the positives (He works really hard to provide for our family, he makes himself lunches most mornings & will help w/ things if he is home & I ask. He's a great day, attentive spouse & obviously cares a lot for me & for the children.) But instead of focusing on those things, I started nit picking the negatives. Thankfully, the Lord tugged my heart and pointed out that I was allowing what I was reading to affect how I felt. I don't truly feel as tho he doesn't do anything around here. Sure, sometimes I get overwhelmed and do feel that way, but for the most part I don't. I don't truly feel as tho I'm always picking up after him or cleaning up messes he makes.

It goes along with what Matt & I have been reading in Love & War. One of the things that the authors talked about in the chapter we're reading now, is to not let negativity creep in and destroy your marriage. It's easy to let outside influences in & to start thinking bad thoughts when that's all you hear or read all the time.

So... here's to trying to keep the positive the forerunner in my thoughts & heart.

The One Where I Break Down My School Day

I've been feeling guilty over the fact that we complete our school day in about 3-4 hrs each day. We begin by 8 each morning and are done by noon each day. Rarely have we gone past noon & most day we're done quite a bit before noon. I was trying to figure out if we're skipping something important & I realized we are skipping some things. We don't do breaks or lunches. We work straight through, taking a 5 min break to grab a snack around 10. We don't have to get from one room to another. I don't count P.E. into our school day nor do I count music. We don't do home room or assemblies. So I guess, we probably spend about the same time as the public school does on academics.