Proverbs and Parenting

A merry heart doeth good like a medicine: but a broken spirit drieth the bones.
Proverbs 17:22 (italics not mine, it's printed just like that in my KJV)

This has been one of my favorite verses for years. I love it and read it over and over again. I meditate on it as often as I need to, and that's pretty often.

You see, I have a long history of battling a very real depression. All of my looking for the good in things, the humor in things, the blessing in things, doesn't come naturally. It's a conscious decision, a decision that on some days is so hard for me to make. Those are the days when the decision to be merry or to find the merriment is even more important. For me, it's necessary.

Like so many things in life, especially hard things, it comes easier with practice. And so I practice, and I encourage my children to practice. We practice joy. We practice laughter. We practice merriment. We try to have fun, good clean fun, and it does our hearts good.

"but a broken spirit drieth the bones"- what happens to things that are dried? I've lost enough plants to know about dryness. Things become hard. They become weak. They become brittle. They break.

The opposite of dry is wet. (Brilliant observation, I know.) Really wet is saturated, and that's how I want so badly to be- saturated with joy, soaked through and through, to the bone.

It's how I want to be, for me, which is even more important because of my role as a parent, a Mother, a life and soul shaper. And so I set my mind on things of Him. He's teaching me joy. He makes me merry and it does my heart good. When my heart is doing good, then I am better equipped to be the Mother I strive to be. Then I can share my merry heart and it doeth them good as well. I want to do them so much good. By His grace, I will.